tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549Thu, 24 Nov 2016 16:41:45 +0000Things I've Made365 albumBurdaStyleTutorialsSewing ExcursionsCopycatKimono TeeLydiaA Pretty Cool LifeBatwingCanadian SmockingCraftGossipDesign It Yourself ClothesIdiot's Guide to SewingJumper Sweater RefashionKinoKuniyaLittle Black DressSew and SoThe Art of Manipulating FabricTwinkle SewsflickrScared Stitchlesshttp://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)Blogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-1950182777237797687Thu, 03 Nov 2016 07:51:00 +00002016-11-03T19:00:44.139+11:00How My Handmade Shoes are Ageing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B5lShr6B-8I/WBrULf_zeRI/AAAAAAAADas/DwOwgvJ88x41o0J12loj7qRYomA1OMsywCLcB/s1600/IMG_2677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B5lShr6B-8I/WBrULf_zeRI/AAAAAAAADas/DwOwgvJ88x41o0J12loj7qRYomA1OMsywCLcB/s640/IMG_2677.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'm back today to talk you through my little collection of handmade shoes and how they're ageing. Thankfully because I blogged them all I know that the blue ballet flats were made at the start of March this year, almost 8 months ago. The Tan Sandals were made just a few weeks later, also in March, so close to 7 months ago. The Derby Shoes were made at the end of August so about 2 months ago.<br /><br />This post is to check in on how they've been wearing and what I've been learning whilst having them on my feet.<br /><br /><a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/blue-leather-ballet-flats.html">Blue Ballet Flats</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PdSz6PLigvQ/WBrWRX249fI/AAAAAAAADa4/rRjgMIkig9woOB6Yzr3d9FfC6uUMH5u5ACLcB/s1600/IMG_2689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PdSz6PLigvQ/WBrWRX249fI/AAAAAAAADa4/rRjgMIkig9woOB6Yzr3d9FfC6uUMH5u5ACLcB/s640/IMG_2689.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Firstly these were made from the same hide as my&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/leather-tote-bag.html">Leather Tote Bag</a>&nbsp;so they were automatically a win in a lot of respects. I set myself a goal when I bought that hide to make myself a handbag and a pair of shoes from it so being able to fulfil that was pretty exciting all in itself.<br /><br />I spoke in the post for these shoes about how I had, for the first time on my shoe making journey, made shoes that actually felt like shoes. I'd made shoes prior to these that sneakily looked a lot like shoes but depressingly felt a lot like slippers. The biggest difference with these shoes was getting the stiffeners right. By the way if you want a comprehensive list of what materials/tools I own and use you can read about it&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/starting-with-shoemaking-courses-online.html">here</a>. The stiffeners I used for these shoes were thicker than what was recommended so I did have to thin them down in general and most especially on the edges. This was to make sure you couldn't see the line through the leather of where the stiffener starts and ends. Can you see where they're positioned in the above picture? Me neither! I got that bit right. So one of the biggest lessons I learned making and now wearing these shoes is that I like them to feel firm and structured. I like a shoe that holds it's shape without a foot in it. Even after a couple of hundred hours of wear these shoes are holding their shape pretty much like the day they were made. Success.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-odcVZ5X39fo/WBra_amDjuI/AAAAAAAADbE/MpiAjNosow0-3AN7jl1WduBfcmKP5c8uQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-odcVZ5X39fo/WBra_amDjuI/AAAAAAAADbE/MpiAjNosow0-3AN7jl1WduBfcmKP5c8uQCLcB/s640/IMG_2694.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I also spoke in the post for these shoes that I couldn't actually sew the neckline together because the combination of leathers was just too tricky for my sewing machine. I suspected this would be a problem as the blue leather and the lining leather were just glued down to each other and were going to take a LOT of wear as I walked. Turns out that neckline unpeeled itself basically on the first wear and by the third wear it's as if I had never even attempted to glue them together. They were just sitting however they wanted and there was nothing I could do about it. This would have been disheartening if this was something that people could see when they looked at the shoes. As it turns out although the leathers aren't attached in any formal way the topline still manages to remain folded down no matter how much I wear them so although they look terrible off my foot you can't even tell when they're on my foot. Winning??<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pB6A00Iot-U/WBrbbToEpWI/AAAAAAAADbM/tGkLZn1oTTgGHP16I7VUpnJJoqSoytVVwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2700.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pB6A00Iot-U/WBrbbToEpWI/AAAAAAAADbM/tGkLZn1oTTgGHP16I7VUpnJJoqSoytVVwCLcB/s640/IMG_2700.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />As you can see from the pic above there's a pretty obvious hole in the back seam of the right shoe. This is where you nail the leather to the last to keep it in place while lasting because you need a bit of tension to last the leather into shape. The teacher did say you need to use a tiny little nail for this job and I used a small, but obviously not small enough, nail. You could barely even see this once they were finished but it's created a weak spot and is pulling on that seam in strange ways so I'll know to use a tiny nail there next time. Although I quite like the idea of nailing into the lining above the upper leather so I may just nail the lining to the last in a couple of spots to secure it next time and avoid this problem altogether. Also there's the tiniest gap between the heel and the bottom of the shoe appearing there. This is just from wear but has been that way for some time so I don't think it's likely to affect the sole in any way.<br /><br />And to finish off here's a pic of how the leather soling is wearing. Quite good, no complaints.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uVuXbxs9slk/WBrdPfMhEnI/AAAAAAAADbc/kbTmsGTTq0wljGLzd-mu3xaI7ayjgsUrACLcB/s1600/IMG_2704.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uVuXbxs9slk/WBrdPfMhEnI/AAAAAAAADbc/kbTmsGTTq0wljGLzd-mu3xaI7ayjgsUrACLcB/s640/IMG_2704.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/tan-leather-sandals_29.html">Tan Leather Sandals</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yK6rM2LsCHw/WBrela5MnhI/AAAAAAAADbo/f3jEx5Q3CbcyUWw8mjRSD7-erNcP19YNwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yK6rM2LsCHw/WBrela5MnhI/AAAAAAAADbo/f3jEx5Q3CbcyUWw8mjRSD7-erNcP19YNwCLcB/s640/IMG_2678.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>These sandals have most definitely had the most wear of all 3 pairs of shoes I've made. They've probably been worn twice as much as both other pairs combined. Which tells me I'm going to need some more handmade sandals in my life soon.<br /><br />You can see from the picture that the area under where my heels sit is the most worn of all the shoe. It's scuffing and I also suspect that it's got a touch of water damage from not having enough leather dew applied in the beginning. I assure you that I went at these so thoroughly with leather dew but I think for my next pair of sandals, knowing how exposed to the elements they'll be, I'll let them dry then repeat the same process again before I even think about putting them on my feet.<br /><br />From above you can see the upper parts of the sandal are all holding their shape very nicely. This is mostly because I worked with very thick and hard to work with leather. It was worth the struggle so that the shoe could keep it's shape without a foot in it. I'm seeing a pattern here.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qLCAWV2rubI/WBrgnkiAKdI/AAAAAAAADb0/hAYyy0DiatQ0aQbw3NvH2i2xAUhApHUWACLcB/s1600/IMG_2680.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qLCAWV2rubI/WBrgnkiAKdI/AAAAAAAADb0/hAYyy0DiatQ0aQbw3NvH2i2xAUhApHUWACLcB/s640/IMG_2680.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />The most disappointing part of these sandals is the way they wear at the side front. The midsole/sole curves up around the side of my foot. Just a little on the my left foot but a whole lot on my right foot. I suspected when I made these that having a layer of leather as the midsole and having leather soling attached wouldn't be strong enough and unfortunately when it comes to the front of the sandal I was right. They could have done with some texon board sandwiched in there to give it more structure but that would have meant hiding the edges of the texon board because I wanted one nice neat finish on the side.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6_mRStgaPw/WBrh9scXSOI/AAAAAAAADcA/OWa5vRDuizYwql2d_SPwmlYXsnVt8-fTACLcB/s1600/IMG_2681.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6_mRStgaPw/WBrh9scXSOI/AAAAAAAADcA/OWa5vRDuizYwql2d_SPwmlYXsnVt8-fTACLcB/s640/IMG_2681.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />I think I've got a resolution for this problem as it's come up again (but in a different way) with a pair of shoes I started a couple of weeks ago. So I'll try that fix and assess whether that will give me the structure I want to keep the soles of my sandals flat and professional looking.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s4HljcxnGzI/WBrirIDJp7I/AAAAAAAADcE/xHstgXR2tsYScJK3l_T6Q7bT8YbMe86uwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s4HljcxnGzI/WBrirIDJp7I/AAAAAAAADcE/xHstgXR2tsYScJK3l_T6Q7bT8YbMe86uwCLcB/s640/IMG_2703.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />The leather soling is wearing just fine on these two and is showing evidence of just how much I wear (and love) them.<br /><br /><a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/derby-shoes.html">Derby Shoes</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxgQ2Y5-X50/WBrjXmQndiI/AAAAAAAADcQ/gdyCceNfikIbHnb32Zz265BY9Ote3nIMgCLcB/s1600/IMG_2707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oxgQ2Y5-X50/WBrjXmQndiI/AAAAAAAADcQ/gdyCceNfikIbHnb32Zz265BY9Ote3nIMgCLcB/s640/IMG_2707.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Here are my 2 month old Derby Shoes looking the oldest of the lot. I have to say it's been a love/hate relationship with these shoes which I never expected when I was making them. In the post on these shoes I talked about making a dressy shoe that conversely had a relaxed feel to them. I wanted to experiment with what a shoe would look like and feel like without all the stiffeners in them. Would they be soft and supple and cool to wear or would I not like that? Back then the question was driving the process.<br /><br />As evidenced in the above photo although I've only worn these for about 100-200 hours they have very visible crumple lines which I don't love. They look a touch better on my feet than they do sitting footless on a piece of wood but still they're a little sad looking to me. The structure of them, not the whole shoe.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BjU088mwBOE/WBrkplowV0I/AAAAAAAADcc/0_65DTdq8O0kPcdIbSoSnoT-XJuRsLmHgCLcB/s1600/IMG_2710.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BjU088mwBOE/WBrkplowV0I/AAAAAAAADcc/0_65DTdq8O0kPcdIbSoSnoT-XJuRsLmHgCLcB/s640/IMG_2710.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Unfortunately on the left shoe I had an issue with the soling. The soling for the right shoe went on like a dream. I bashed it with a hammer in all the right places and it responded by becoming a sole that was attached to a shoe and never once threatened to move. The left one however is still driving me a little mad. You can see the front of the sole gaping from the toe and that's AFTER I've already peeled back the sole and tried to reglue it. It's the sole that will not be tamed. Currently it's not really affecting the wear of the shoe so I'm still wearing it out occasionally. Part of me hopes that it will peel back far enough that I can resole most, if not all, the shoe and be given the chance to start again. Ahhhh contact cement you fickle thing you.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qEuBQf-SIqU/WBrm-afZe2I/AAAAAAAADco/sQm0k9FBy9cdxGu7a8oRBZ7rK-gA_hKYQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qEuBQf-SIqU/WBrm-afZe2I/AAAAAAAADco/sQm0k9FBy9cdxGu7a8oRBZ7rK-gA_hKYQCLcB/s640/IMG_2713.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />On the plus side the back of the shoe is holding it's shape really well. Remember how I was all worried about how thick I'd made the back of the shoe because I'd wrapped one piece of leather around another piece of leather? Well, my friends, turns out that gave my heel the perfect amount of structure for it not to cave in like the toe has. Problem no more.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gkapRGANOyA/WBroNPwbKKI/AAAAAAAADc0/kglPYAzzKtsVO_u4m8nA4RQD9ytdMPuCQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gkapRGANOyA/WBroNPwbKKI/AAAAAAAADc0/kglPYAzzKtsVO_u4m8nA4RQD9ytdMPuCQCLcB/s640/IMG_2709.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />The leather soling is ageing quite well so all is well there.<br /><br />I probably sound quite ambivalent about these Derby Shoes because they've been a little disappointing and also the laces broke on the right shoe (thankfully before I left the house so I could replace it). But I still really, really love the look of them and the combination of the leathers. My curiosity will drive me to wear them until they literally fall apart because obviously that will give me a whole new topic to analyse. What fun.<br /><br />All in all I think for my first 3 pairs of "real" shoes I've done exceedingly well and I'm learning from the process of shoemaking as well as from wearing them. Also I've never been so interested in my feet until now. That's something new and different.<br /><br />A little while ago I entered a competition with these shoes and managed to win second prize. I won half a cow hide - that thing is literally as wide as my arms and far taller than me. I also got a smaller hide, a box of leather making projects, leather working tools and a t shirt. This shoe making thing is all a bit fun!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T5zvvE3OWHM/WBrq_BnCB0I/AAAAAAAADdA/9Cduet3Lz6ICSaN12yO52lZzJlBbJpQ8QCLcB/s1600/IMG_2629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T5zvvE3OWHM/WBrq_BnCB0I/AAAAAAAADdA/9Cduet3Lz6ICSaN12yO52lZzJlBbJpQ8QCLcB/s640/IMG_2629.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-my-handmade-shoes-are-ageing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-4296451375276621144Sat, 27 Aug 2016 03:40:00 +00002016-08-27T13:40:11.984+10:00Derby Shoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vIt5JiRHCQk/V8EHOGLy0VI/AAAAAAAADZA/6EtHtIuvbs4NWdPqFOTiWMgSDzoFCitvQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vIt5JiRHCQk/V8EHOGLy0VI/AAAAAAAADZA/6EtHtIuvbs4NWdPqFOTiWMgSDzoFCitvQCLcB/s640/IMG_2208.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I made a pair of derby shoes! I had another 2 pairs of shoes that I was working on in my head deciding which one to make first when I spotted this blue, metallic, laser cut leather and fell in LOVE. So naturally that bumped itself to the top of the queue and I had to make shoes with this leather IMMEDIATELY.<br /><br />I'm a little off script from my classes on <a href="http://shoemakingcoursesonline.com/">shoemakingcoursesonline.com</a>&nbsp;as she offers an Oxford shoes class not a Derby class. I just couldn't bring myself to love Oxfords even though it would have been easier to follow her instructions than make up some of the pattern making and construction steps. Also I'm pretty sure I've been talking about making Oxfords this whole process when really I've been making Derby's. I've always used these terms interchangeably and I now understand they mean something different.<br /><br />I'm kicking this off with a whole bunch of progress pics and then a bit of a discussion on what went right and what I learnt from these shoes. I could write out all the steps but I'd be sick of repeating the words gluing, skiving, hand stitching (swearing, bleeding...) etc.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VPXlPH1zZTw/V8Ac4z9SisI/AAAAAAAADXc/CRO7FtnyqqkH_4qPEMBIs3htrFNCIEzkQCEw/s1600/IMG_1998.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VPXlPH1zZTw/V8Ac4z9SisI/AAAAAAAADXc/CRO7FtnyqqkH_4qPEMBIs3htrFNCIEzkQCEw/s640/IMG_1998.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Pattern pieces cut out for upper, feature leather and lining.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5nia1H3g3lg/V8AkV4V0BcI/AAAAAAAADXo/Cu0bBPfAp0w82uWjpiGS-yxW1-0djv0WQCEw/s1600/IMG_2002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5nia1H3g3lg/V8AkV4V0BcI/AAAAAAAADXo/Cu0bBPfAp0w82uWjpiGS-yxW1-0djv0WQCEw/s640/IMG_2002.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Glued, skived and hand stitched together.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U86-AXl8Ab4/V8AqvCyP0hI/AAAAAAAADX8/rcBZIOM2_U4cVO8UOEdN85u1oWaykbC6ACLcB/s1600/IMG_2005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U86-AXl8Ab4/V8AqvCyP0hI/AAAAAAAADX8/rcBZIOM2_U4cVO8UOEdN85u1oWaykbC6ACLcB/s640/IMG_2005.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />More glueing before more hand stitching.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_RInPy2-SZk/V8AuwYSp-cI/AAAAAAAADYM/28Z7OL179qAB0TYGXK3EKzhWr2ohgLoyQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_RInPy2-SZk/V8AuwYSp-cI/AAAAAAAADYM/28Z7OL179qAB0TYGXK3EKzhWr2ohgLoyQCLcB/s640/IMG_2034.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Faintly resembling a shoe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oBWLE1ja4k0/V8AvUToFMeI/AAAAAAAADYQ/CCyPdihkP1AXWwnkUcH84y06CEggVwDHACLcB/s1600/IMG_2042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oBWLE1ja4k0/V8AvUToFMeI/AAAAAAAADYQ/CCyPdihkP1AXWwnkUcH84y06CEggVwDHACLcB/s640/IMG_2042.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lasting the leather with nails all over the joint.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SEgqSjIv3zg/V8AwIGVNgSI/AAAAAAAADYY/iQhZudrBH88gOgLKYi-z0oj8gB38GVcrwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SEgqSjIv3zg/V8AwIGVNgSI/AAAAAAAADYY/iQhZudrBH88gOgLKYi-z0oj8gB38GVcrwCLcB/s640/IMG_2106.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Blurry photo, whoops. This is the bottom of the shoes after sanding them all down flat ready for soles.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ToV5zq6dikY/V8Aw199eUdI/AAAAAAAADYg/oad6PoEETa8TbVPbSoqgGjlje-6t6_K7ACLcB/s1600/IMG_2109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ToV5zq6dikY/V8Aw199eUdI/AAAAAAAADYg/oad6PoEETa8TbVPbSoqgGjlje-6t6_K7ACLcB/s640/IMG_2109.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Sole and heel pieces cut out and ready to wrangle into place.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s9AuvshCI8w/V8Axh595q0I/AAAAAAAADYo/aMiGYSjbNYwPdSQHtx5CBKcsq7Lv3hs_wCLcB/s1600/IMG_2116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s9AuvshCI8w/V8Axh595q0I/AAAAAAAADYo/aMiGYSjbNYwPdSQHtx5CBKcsq7Lv3hs_wCLcB/s640/IMG_2116.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Soles attached, glued and hammered into place/shape. Starting to shape the heel to make it perfectly level.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rX2S_ZBLzTk/V8EH1qKRl-I/AAAAAAAADZE/iP7lvgpCXRQtRCfVRkeuBZGnC5rMZPPqgCLcB/s1600/IMG_2205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rX2S_ZBLzTk/V8EH1qKRl-I/AAAAAAAADZE/iP7lvgpCXRQtRCfVRkeuBZGnC5rMZPPqgCLcB/s640/IMG_2205.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />FINISHED AND ON MY FEET!<br /><br />I have to say I'm incredibly proud of these shoes! Since taking classes on shoemaking I've seen a huge jump in what I can create but now that I'm getting the hang of some of the skills involved they're starting to come together a little easier. Each part of the process comes with a set of skills and when you first start you're trying to learn them all and be good at them all at the same time. It's nice to repeat each step on each new pair of shoes and feel your knowledge and experience go a little bit deeper each time.<br /><br />The aim in making these was to have a dressy pair of closed shoes that conversely had a bit of a relaxed feel to them when worn. I mentioned when I made my&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/blue-leather-ballet-flats.html">Ballet Flats</a>&nbsp;that I had hit upon the right amount of structure for my shoes (as compared to the ones I was trying to make pre-shoemaking classes) and while that hasn't changed I wanted to experiment with what my shoes could feel like without a toe puff and heel counter to give it shape and structure. The safest bet for these shoes was to make them from a pretty thick and strong leather to start with so that would create all the structure and shaping I'd need without needing to add to it. As chance would have it this thickness of leather was perfect for what I was going for. They feel a tiny bit lighter and definitely more relaxed than my ballet flats after trying them on. I'm keen to feel how they age and stretch as they get worn.<br /><br />So I got the leather weight spot on. That was already half the battle. I don't feel like I quite did the right thing wrapping this feature leather around the black leather because it's too thick and sticks out too much at the sides for my liking. But had I thought about my process before getting excited and jumping in I could have skived the black leather pieces down nicely and made it sit closer together on the overlap. It's definitely not the end of the world and if you look at my shoes you'll probably laugh at how much I even care about that detail but at least there's room for improvement.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xI4UU89vAYA/V8EIV5FmzVI/AAAAAAAADZI/HwCxbpB1u8kM_lBNehV2rafS6ZXseNrgACLcB/s1600/IMG_2213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xI4UU89vAYA/V8EIV5FmzVI/AAAAAAAADZI/HwCxbpB1u8kM_lBNehV2rafS6ZXseNrgACLcB/s640/IMG_2213.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />I feel like I'm getting better at getting a consistent result across the toe. It's one of the scariest parts in shoemaking for me because if they don't sit nice and flush around the toe people will notice every lump and bump. I think this one comes down to practise as well as really understanding how to use my lasting pincers better each time I last.<br /><br />I'm a bit bummed about the hand stitching on them though. When I was at Birsdall Leather I found some thick waxed thread which looked perfect for hand stitching shoes. I thought it might give the shoes a bit of a different look to a thinner thread. Turns out I hated how thick it was as soon as I started working with it. It's hidden really well because the feature leather is quite busy so it's far from a disaster but I'll know for next time that a thinner thread is actually my preference.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kw4MtzEwtwk/V8EI-A_02uI/AAAAAAAADZU/Z4K9CzlGUoYpSx5qVy-hdYykLH6iDdOKACLcB/s1600/IMG_2221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="536" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kw4MtzEwtwk/V8EI-A_02uI/AAAAAAAADZU/Z4K9CzlGUoYpSx5qVy-hdYykLH6iDdOKACLcB/s640/IMG_2221.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Also we need to talk about that heel. When I made my ballet flats I was a bit overwhelmed learning all of the different skills and just getting through the sheer amount of steps to get from start to finish. I got shoe fatigue (if that's a thing) so I ended up just gluing the sole on and gluing a heel straight over &nbsp;the top which was cheating. This time I really took the time to rewatch her lessons and set an entire day aside just to do the soles and heels. And it REALLY paid off. My Dremel got the workout of it's life and I was covered head to toe in leather dust but I got that heel dead level. I really think this is the most impressive part of the shoe this time. I mean that feature leather is awesome and all but having a handmade shoe with a heel that looks smooth and level really takes this pair up a notch compared to my last ones.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8i9QBNhWhTg/V8EJ1HQKScI/AAAAAAAADZc/5-2-Txhcq0EHKMq_nySkt1tRprsOC9e3ACLcB/s1600/IMG_2190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8i9QBNhWhTg/V8EJ1HQKScI/AAAAAAAADZc/5-2-Txhcq0EHKMq_nySkt1tRprsOC9e3ACLcB/s640/IMG_2190.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />When you look up close the heel is still quite lumpy and bumpy which comes down to adding a bit more width and length to my heel pieces so I can be sure to sand it off to the same level. I think it would also help if I put a bit of dye on the sides (and maybe the whole sole?) this would make the sole and heel look uniform which could definitely elevate the sole and heel a bit more. I may look into that for my next pair to see how it turns out.<br /><br />All in all though I'm absolutely stoked to have ended up with something that looked how it did in my head prior to starting. It's not easy to learn a new hobby and see so obviously the gap between your vision and your skill set. I'm closing that gap ever so slowly and having a big vision to work towards will only mean greater looking shoes in the future.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UxA180bUBg/V8EKip8pWhI/AAAAAAAADZg/2TQbwBnjlOoAOaaGepvR5SoGIhujhQ51gCLcB/s1600/IMG_2230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UxA180bUBg/V8EKip8pWhI/AAAAAAAADZg/2TQbwBnjlOoAOaaGepvR5SoGIhujhQ51gCLcB/s640/IMG_2230.JPG" width="572" /></a></div><br /><br />If anybody wants me I'll be walking about staring down at my new shoes hoping not to bump into anything!http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/08/derby-shoes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-6504716379354185061Tue, 31 May 2016 09:24:00 +00002016-05-31T19:24:07.209+10:00Me Made May 2016 recap with handy dandy infographic and collage!For those of you who don't follow me on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/scaredstitchless/">instagram</a> - surprise! I pledged to be a part of Me Made May this year for the first time ever. Every other year I've had to wear uniform so it was nice to finally get involved. I wear me-mades most of the time and while I know there are gaps in my handmade wardrobe I wasn't sure exactly where they were. This was a fun way of finding out.<br /><br />Because I'm that kind of gal I've created a handy dandy infographic to fill you in on all the fun. Plus I'm throwing in a bonus collage of my instagram selfies AND a dot point list of my discoveries. What a post. Much excitement. <br /><br />Note: I made this infographic last night so it only chronicles 30 out of 31 days but you get the picture.<br /><br /><div id="vgdiv485" style="height: 0px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 816px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 100%; position: relative;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><iframe id="vgframe485" src="https://infograph.venngage.com/e3/114207/behold?border=false" style="border: 0px; height: 100%; left: 0px; max-width: 816px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 100%;"></iframe></div><script>!function(){var t=document.getElementById("vgframe485"),e=document.getElementById("vgdiv485"),n=function(){t.contentWindow.postMessage(e.offsetWidth,"*"),e.style.paddingBottom=e.offsetWidth*1056/816+"px"};window.addEventListener("resize",n),window.addEventListener("load",n)}()</script><br /><div style="color: rgb(224 , 224 , 224); margin: 0px auto; max-width: 816px; padding-top: 10px; text-align: right;"><a href="https://infograph.venngage.com/p/114207/behold" style="border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: rgb(221 , 221 , 221); font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-right: 5px; text-decoration: none;">Behold</a><a href="https://venngage.com/" style="color: rgb(221 , 221 , 221); font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-left: 5px; text-decoration: none;">Infographic</a></div><br />So the infographic compiles the most noteworthy data on it. The only bit I forgot to put in was the most amount of me-mades worn on the one day - 7!<br /><br />As promised here's the collage of my selfies. Confession: I'm absolutely terrible at selfies and I'm not entirely sure how to take a selfie of myself in a mirror without the phone being directly in front of my face. This is the reason you only get one face-on selfie below. It was a bit of yoga for the mind to get that picture lined up, and in the work bathrooms no less. Top tip - the internet has heaps of articles and videos on how to take a good outfit selfie. Turns out if you google this on day 2 of the challenge you can calm your worried mind about how you're going to survive the whole month. Ask me how I know.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OeDpiIhSxys/V01NijhnKZI/AAAAAAAADV0/QdvirqAUw10XrYuw1keC0uk4qzh5KuJQACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-05-31%2Bat%2B6.09.53%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OeDpiIhSxys/V01NijhnKZI/AAAAAAAADV0/QdvirqAUw10XrYuw1keC0uk4qzh5KuJQACLcB/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-05-31%2Bat%2B6.09.53%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RQVsOPyxi30/V01PcENIfXI/AAAAAAAADWA/I_B_Sj9un-IHN36ybjNgcEg9w2w964mYQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-05-31%2Bat%2B6.17.14%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RQVsOPyxi30/V01PcENIfXI/AAAAAAAADWA/I_B_Sj9un-IHN36ybjNgcEg9w2w964mYQCLcB/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-05-31%2Bat%2B6.17.14%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So the whole point of Me Made May was to discover how my handmade wardrobe functions in my everyday life. Here are some things I discovered:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><ul><li>I thought I wore a lot more clothes in the one month. I'm surprised that I rotated the same 30 items throughout the month. Especially seeing as I was generally wearing about 3 handmade items a day.</li><li>I wear a lot of black and blue. I'm like a fashionable bruise.</li><li>I wear my grey Jenna Cardi far more often than I ever thought. I should definitely make another one to give it a rest.</li><li>I wear more separates than dresses. I thought it was the other way around.</li><li>I thought my biggest wardrobe gaps were pants and jackets because I've never sewn them before. What I'm actually really lacking is clothes to wear around the house.</li><li>I used to think that my favourite items I've ever sewn were some of my dresses. I used to think they expressed something about me I couldn't explain in words. Turns out it's my Leather Handbag that's far and above my top worn and loved item I've ever sewn. Closely followed by my handmade shoes. This tells me that leatherwork is something really important for my future.</li></ul><div>And there you have it folks my Me Made May all wrapped up in one fun and informative post!</div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/05/me-made-may-2016-recap-with-handy-dandy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-1555522155452112547Tue, 29 Mar 2016 04:42:00 +00002016-04-25T13:16:41.433+10:00Tan Leather Sandals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dbLjqcFY2BE/VvnHwOBIShI/AAAAAAAADSs/MDXH0cziFb0ExDIPxsCl4uhLVP8ErSRcA/s1600/IMG_0811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dbLjqcFY2BE/VvnHwOBIShI/AAAAAAAADSs/MDXH0cziFb0ExDIPxsCl4uhLVP8ErSRcA/s640/IMG_0811.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Today's a big picture heavy post about the making of these Tan Leather Sandals. As you may know I signed up to a 3 month membership to <a href="http://shoemakingcoursesonline.com/">ShoeMakingCoursesOnline.com</a>&nbsp;for Christmas and after buying all <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/starting-with-shoemaking-courses-online.html">my materials</a> I've slowly been working my way through endless hours of content learning how to make a ton of different types of shoes. I have to admit I was a bit puzzled when I saw Sveta had only offered an asymmetric unisex sandal course on her website. The style of them is not for me but I downloaded the classes anyhow just for the learning. However I poked around a bit more and found she had a stand alone class you can buy just to make the patterns for <a href="https://gumroad.com/l/tstarp">T Strap Sandals</a>. They were the exact shape that I wanted to make so I jumped in and bought it immediately. I went back a day later and found that my membership had expired (it's been 3 months already?!) and then realised I'd only downloaded the first couple of lessons on the asymmetric sandal course so I had no idea how to last my sandal once I made the pattern. I figured I'd watched enough content and absorbed enough of her wisdom to give it a good try so I forged ahead.<br /><div><br /></div><div>I drew my pattern onto my last with a little bit of help from a pair of shoes I have that look a bit like this. Then I pulled off the masking tape and made my pattern following her instructions. I ended up with the pattern pieces you see on the right which I tested out in paper and cardboard to make sure the fit was good. This time around I got to try the pattern on my last and my foot which was reassuring as generally with shoes you don't know what the fit's like until you've finished and put it on your foot.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PXdGaJvuX3g/VvnE7qGgzOI/AAAAAAAADSY/ddksqq5pm6Y1BHgutHtRjghXeOHiIMhrg/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B10.56.09%2Bam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PXdGaJvuX3g/VvnE7qGgzOI/AAAAAAAADSY/ddksqq5pm6Y1BHgutHtRjghXeOHiIMhrg/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B10.56.09%2Bam.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zOGzr5ThqoA/VvnFqpMpVLI/AAAAAAAADSg/65CamUAsC1stAyBtOSz0daZJwjHw2UzEw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B10.59.18%2Bam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zOGzr5ThqoA/VvnFqpMpVLI/AAAAAAAADSg/65CamUAsC1stAyBtOSz0daZJwjHw2UzEw/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B10.59.18%2Bam.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once I was sure about the pattern and the placement of the upper on the midsole I cut out my leather. I bought this leather from a fabric destash market a couple of weeks ago. It's really thick, like about 4mm thick, and was difficult to cut and work with but I loved the colour and how sturdy the shoes would be once made so I forged on. It had quite a few imperfections which I couldn't entirely cut around but this was why I was using it in the first place, if the sandals didn't work out I wouldn't have wasted really good leather making these.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Because I wasn't sure how to last these I puzzled over the order of construction and finishing for a while. As you may be able to tell those midsoles in leather above are enormous. I originally cut them out with a 2cm allowance around all sides to fold the leather around my texon board I use for midsoles. However once I started working with the leather I knew it was going to be impossible to get this thick leather to bend let alone fold around a texon board neatly. So after much thought I decided to leave out the texon board altogether and just have this leather midsole glued straight onto the leather soling which is already extremely stiff. I hoped this would be sturdy enough to feel comfortable and supportive.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then I faced the conundrum of how to last these sandals. Because I wasn't using a midsole with a covering like I did in my ballet flats I couldn't just hammer nails into the last to shape the leather. That would put holes through my midsoles which would be on show for the life of the shoes. No thanks. But I knew this leather was not going to be wrangled into place just with glue and pliers so I had to work out a solution. I ended up sticking masking tape to the soles and drawing out where the straps would sit and the upper toe part would sit. I nailed the straps onto the last just as they were but I soaked the upper toe part in water so that I could stretch and form it over the last and nail it into the right place so that when it came time to glue them the leather would "remember" where it was meant to go. I was a bit worried abut submerging the leather in water in case this caused any lasting damage to it? Would they dry out and crack in the future? Would the underside be affected and not look how it should because they'd been soaked? The choice was to wet and form them or not make the sandals at all because there was no other way I could think to do it.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--nAp8xqrMPg/VvnIgB5n-0I/AAAAAAAADS0/0hByQY5AQhE1pMGvWpuNywTQtd013La1g/s1600/IMG_0688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--nAp8xqrMPg/VvnIgB5n-0I/AAAAAAAADS0/0hByQY5AQhE1pMGvWpuNywTQtd013La1g/s640/IMG_0688.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The result was much better than I expected! When I lasted my ballet flats and eased two concave curves into each other I had ripples or folds of leather I had to wrangle into place, nail and glue down and then skive and sand back to get it flat. When I lasted this leather onto the midsole just with glue and pliers it automatically laid flat as you see here - no folds whatsoever. This was great because it meant I had less skiving and sanding to get that layer of leather flat against the midsole once everything dried. Hurrah!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IIEkwhLPmbk/VvnJ_lNSxmI/AAAAAAAADTA/kbc-r15ZlGENZ8BpfsT6hlGcUCVTpngjg/s1600/IMG_0692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IIEkwhLPmbk/VvnJ_lNSxmI/AAAAAAAADTA/kbc-r15ZlGENZ8BpfsT6hlGcUCVTpngjg/s640/IMG_0692.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The last step was to glue the soles on and they were done!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IgTPXmcq2ec/VvnLoGQmwyI/AAAAAAAADTQ/MMhvv_ZP0BshlkiIy35bUHD8DIZ_K1Lhw/s1600/IMG_0720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IgTPXmcq2ec/VvnLoGQmwyI/AAAAAAAADTQ/MMhvv_ZP0BshlkiIy35bUHD8DIZ_K1Lhw/s640/IMG_0720.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So let's talk about how they fit and feel. Firstly they're super comfortable. The width around my joints is perfect and doesn't squish my feet like all other shoes do so that's already a great win. However we need to talk about sandals and lasts. I bought lasts specifically for making flat, closed shoes. They're perfect for making ballet flats, oxfords and ankle boots but they're not designed to make sandals on them. You <i>can</i> make sandals on them but the sandals aren't going to be perfect right from the get-go. A sandal last is wider around the toes so that you're feet lay flat on the midsole and are not being held in by the sides of shoes. The sandal last is also flatter at the toe end of the last to mimic how thick your toes are. I knew all this before I started and I'm ok living with imperfect sandals but I'll point a few things out to you in the below photos so you understand. The biggest reason I got away with this was because my toes are almost completely enclosed so they're being held in place as I walk. However if you look closely you'll see that the open toe part is sitting much higher up than my toes because it's been formed to mimic the shape of a ballet flat toe not a sandal toe. This is much more noticeable in real life than in pictures but I knew it was going to be this way so at least I was expecting it. I believe that sandal lasts are also slightly longer to accommodate the length of your foot as it rests on an open midsole. As you can see my feet literally just fit onto the midsole and could probably do with a tiny bit more length seeing as my feet move very freely in this type of shoe. Again not complaining, I knew this would be the case but it's interesting to notice the difference a last can make on the final pair of shoes.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll most likely buy myself a pair of sandal lasts for next spring/summer seeing as it's Australia and I wear open toed shoes for a lot of the year. But for now I'm ok with the limitations of these lasts. These pictures were taken a day after wearing them for the first time so this is 9 hours into their wearing life. As you can see in the photo on the left they're starting to curve up at the sides of the outer foot - it's much more noticeable on my right foot than my left. I'm sure this is because I let the texon board go and it's just two layers of leather glued together. Very stiff and strong leather but leather all the same. I think my next pair of sandals are going to need texon board and maybe even a shank to keep their shape properly for the life of the shoe. I don't just want to make shoes anymore. I want to make shoes that last me years. Part of my shoemaking journey will be about monitoring the wear and tear on them and feeding that back into the making process to ensure I'm focussed on longevity not just how pretty they look.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QltrB5lhb8k/VvnXhr3_ndI/AAAAAAAADUY/QDFfwbfw2NgPRZPY3t5Hb7NUGUYT-JzIQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B12.05.03%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QltrB5lhb8k/VvnXhr3_ndI/AAAAAAAADUY/QDFfwbfw2NgPRZPY3t5Hb7NUGUYT-JzIQ/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-29%2Bat%2B12.05.03%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All in all I'm absolutely stoked with them. I'm amazed every time I look down at my feet and think that I made them with my own hands. The hand stitching looks great, I love the buckle, I love the width of straps I chose and I think the proportions work pretty well for my feet. The proportions aren't perfect but for my first sandal they're far and above what I expected of myself and I can't even begin to tell you how good that feeling is. It's like the beginning of sewing again. I wear them out of the house and wonder if anyone is going to look at them or check that I made them because they look handmade or something. It's a weird feeling.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hq8yLsb9WKQ/VvnU9bBKWuI/AAAAAAAADUI/9b730iVevn0o6ErDV8kMt9RRR6j0-fvLw/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hq8yLsb9WKQ/VvnU9bBKWuI/AAAAAAAADUI/9b730iVevn0o6ErDV8kMt9RRR6j0-fvLw/s640/IMG_0804.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So what next? I have some black leather calling my name which I was going to turn into another pair of ballet flats. However on passing through Myer yesterday these shoes below caught my eye and now I'm obsessed and can think of no other shoes. I have leather hole punches and an entire course on making oxfords. Stay tuned.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6P6F--NfJ0/VvnXSpF8B9I/AAAAAAAADUU/O1f1rKhR6DoARfuCe_fuXnDNaCWdQKG3g/s1600/IMG_0749.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="578" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6P6F--NfJ0/VvnXSpF8B9I/AAAAAAAADUU/O1f1rKhR6DoARfuCe_fuXnDNaCWdQKG3g/s640/IMG_0749.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/03/tan-leather-sandals_29.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-333208706189808869Sun, 13 Mar 2016 09:06:00 +00002016-03-13T20:18:33.656+11:00Blue Leather Ballet Flats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MaWh6ZpkAo4/VuUhmYl1HHI/AAAAAAAADQc/eJE9qEfNtVM52gUyKiyZw0LKUfAH6RhGA/s1600/IMG_0566.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MaWh6ZpkAo4/VuUhmYl1HHI/AAAAAAAADQc/eJE9qEfNtVM52gUyKiyZw0LKUfAH6RhGA/s640/IMG_0566.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>About 6 months ago I bought a whole hide of leather from The Fabric Store with the dream of turning it into a bag and matching shoes. Here I am today to tell you I'm living that dream.<br /><br />I blogged about the making of this <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/leather-tote-bag.html">Leather Tote Bag</a>&nbsp;about 6 months ago when it was hot off the sewing machine. It has since been carried out the house with me every day for 6 months. It's the single most used and loved bag I've ever owned and it's such a great feeling that I made it with my own hands.<br /><br />As you may know I started a course through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com/">ShoeMaking Courses Online</a>&nbsp;at Christmas time and I've been slowly acquiring all the <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/starting-with-shoemaking-courses-online.html">required shoemaking materials</a> to begin learning from Sveta. My lasts arrived around 2 weeks ago and I got stuck straight into her lessons, starting with making a pair of ballet flats. I was so confident after watching all Sveta's lessons that I dove straight into making these shoes from this leather knowing there was no turning back if anything went wrong. I'm so proud to be sharing the successful outcome with you today. FYI there are tons of pictures in this post but it was hard to cull them all down!<br /><br />Let's start by looking at the shoes and the fit before zooming in on some of the...quirks.<br /><br />Firstly the fit. They're hugging my feet in all the right places and they're wide enough to completely encompass my flat feet. I mentioned on Instagram that when I originally started shoemaking I had no idea about lasts. This course has an entire class dedicated to lasts, their measurements and measuring lines to make sure you know where to start from. She also includes some charts to work off to make sure you choose a last that's the right size for you. This is when I learnt that even though I generally fit into a size 39 in the shops that is not the size last I should buy. I was in complete denial when I measured my feet and found out I'm actually a size 37. There's NO WAY my hammy feet would fit into a size 37 no matter how much I tried. However the charts also revealed I have the widest feet you can account for without having to buy fully customised lasts. This makes sense seeing as I have wide flat feet. So although I technically went down 2 sizes I went up a whole bunch of sizes in the width and TA DA! Magic.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TL7JU72_fA0/VuUkhz1vbBI/AAAAAAAADQw/6YUrYrSbw9ohZGUZhnXgfGryqIZXGSW8Q/s1600/IMG_0561.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TL7JU72_fA0/VuUkhz1vbBI/AAAAAAAADQw/6YUrYrSbw9ohZGUZhnXgfGryqIZXGSW8Q/s640/IMG_0561.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />They're a tiny bit tight at the moment - like that feeling you get when you buy new all leather shoes that need a little breaking in before they fit your feet. Also I learnt in the making of these that I like my shoes to have structure to them, to be firm and support my feet. I knew when I was trying to teach myself to make shoes (see <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/p/shoemaking.html">here</a>) that I kept making shoes that felt like slippers and I just wanted them to feel supportive. I really feel like I've achieved that with these shoes. They have the exact amount of flex and support that I like in a shoe. I can't believe my luck really.<br /><br />You can also see in the photo below how much coverage of my feet they provide. I've spoken before about how I can never cover the sides of my feet because my feet are busy pushing the sides of the shoes under my foot. These shoes are really encasing my feet in a satisfying way. I think I'll fix up the neckline a little to dig out a couple of millimetres around the outsides of my feet but other than that the neckline is pretty spot on.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yFtxFAzF6Aw/VuUm4GJ2okI/AAAAAAAADRA/mf_lZPkYBfwLoOXGNbSLkaXndMVGiaGGw/s1600/IMG_0564.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yFtxFAzF6Aw/VuUm4GJ2okI/AAAAAAAADRA/mf_lZPkYBfwLoOXGNbSLkaXndMVGiaGGw/s640/IMG_0564.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />So let's get into the details of how they've turned out vs. how they're meant to turn out once you're adept at making shoes (which I'm clearly not yet). You can see below that while the neckline is really holding it's shape without a foot in it it's also quite messy. I really tried to topstitch the upper and lining together on my machine around the neckline but my machine just couldn't do it. This means the upper is simply &nbsp;folded over and glued down and the lining is just glued to it. This is meant to be a bit neater once the stitches are there to hold everything in place. It would also give me a clearer guide of where to snip the lining which is a little hacky looking rather than neat. Something to work on.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n-lEDlZf-6Q/VuUn_9m4wDI/AAAAAAAADRM/W98TZuKlp4sgRh_0-CiwdEM97W7cI4djw/s1600/IMG_0597.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n-lEDlZf-6Q/VuUn_9m4wDI/AAAAAAAADRM/W98TZuKlp4sgRh_0-CiwdEM97W7cI4djw/s640/IMG_0597.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />I absolutely love the way the sole looks once it's attached. She talks you through skiving the edges so it softly follows the curve of the shoe. However the heel could be attached a lot neater. I'm currently doing all my sanding by hand so it looks quite rough but I think I will buy a dremel at some point so I can get a good, clean, polished edge on the sole and the heel.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ia53eVPWerA/VuUosMJbGfI/AAAAAAAADRY/iOgK0xG__PQ1W2YIc4PnD1TCit8VsVS2w/s1600/IMG_0606.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ia53eVPWerA/VuUosMJbGfI/AAAAAAAADRY/iOgK0xG__PQ1W2YIc4PnD1TCit8VsVS2w/s640/IMG_0606.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />You can see below that I accidentally put the right sole (pictured left) on a few millimetres further back than the left. This was a happy accident to find out that if the heel layer hangs out over the sole layer you can sand them back and make them look like they're one piece. However the left sole was put on a few millimetres more forward so I ended up with a gap between the layers that no amount of hammering would bring together. I'm glad I made this mistake on one of them so I could learn for next time.<br /><br />From this angle you can also see that I left glue on the edges of the shoes when applying the soles. You're meant to rub an eraser over excess glue to get rid of it but that didn't seem to help so I'll be more careful next time and maybe apply masking tape around the edges to make sure it doesn't extend beyond that point.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W6uf3AmMXdk/VuUpK_t6ySI/AAAAAAAADRg/dU6YoXDndCgCwW9-ZeVll_YomA6hE_Lzg/s1600/IMG_0600.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W6uf3AmMXdk/VuUpK_t6ySI/AAAAAAAADRg/dU6YoXDndCgCwW9-ZeVll_YomA6hE_Lzg/s640/IMG_0600.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Also this is just a sensory thing but they make a really satisfying sound when worn. Like they're actual shoes. I love that I've switched to working with veg tan leather for the soles. It's easier to work with and has such a great finish.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sYHtCyJeYZU/VuUrXIYcJSI/AAAAAAAADRw/4ZoiNckdHEQFdWFD0gruqImIPY0_3GhlA/s1600/IMG_0598.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sYHtCyJeYZU/VuUrXIYcJSI/AAAAAAAADRw/4ZoiNckdHEQFdWFD0gruqImIPY0_3GhlA/s640/IMG_0598.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />All in all I'm super impressed with how much I've learnt. My first attempt was successful because the instructions are couture-like. Detailed, considered but still accessible. I've really learnt just how much each millimetre affects the final shoe and the fit. I was miles away trying to teach myself but I feel like I could make just about anything now.<br /><br />I have plans to make a pair of ballet flats in black that I can wear to work all the time plus I'm really keen to make sandals before the hot weather ends. Then I'm excited to make boots once the cold weather arrives. So you can imagine my head is spinning with possibilities. Just like the beginning of sewing I'm now only limited by my imagination. It's a wonderful place to be.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5WINaFOAoBA/VuUsihe1WJI/AAAAAAAADR8/Scqf-nGnLykjLQ5VrTv2hfh-PMO0tB7aA/s1600/IMG_0605.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5WINaFOAoBA/VuUsihe1WJI/AAAAAAAADR8/Scqf-nGnLykjLQ5VrTv2hfh-PMO0tB7aA/s640/IMG_0605.JPG" width="640" /></a>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/03/blue-leather-ballet-flats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-3829150438959014895Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:23:00 +00002016-03-07T22:23:13.339+11:00Starting with Shoemaking Courses Online - Gathering materialsAs promised I'm back talking about Shoemaking!<br /><div><br /></div><div>As you may know I signed up to <a href="https://www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com/on-line-courses/">Shoemaking Courses Online</a> as a Christmas present. I got the Gold Membership for 3 months which allows you access to every course streamed online or downloaded to your computer to watch and refer to later.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>To give you an idea of what shoes she's teaching you to make here is a list: ankle boots, slingback pumps, oxfords, sandals, knee high boots, high heel pumps, ballet flats (leather), ballet flats (fabric), wedge cork sandals, T strap pumps and moccasins. Plus she has specific courses for learning to measure and use lasts, make midsoles, make outsoles, make stacked heels and there are more courses on the way all the time.</div><div><br /></div><div>I really can't recommend this course highly enough. It's like you're there in the studio of an expert shoemaker getting a bird's eye view of how to make shoes. Plus she talks you through common beginner mistakes as you go so you know what not to do and what to look out for.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not, however, a casual hobby. Making shoes Sveta's way involves specific tools and materials that can be hard to find. So if you're going to learn to make shoes you need to commit. That's why I'm sharing my materials below. I would just love a group of people to learn shoemaking with so I hope this helps in some small way to those who want to give it a go but don't know where to start.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VkZnUaPrwho/Vt1ZpUkTGaI/AAAAAAAADP4/wA8qaIadmLs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-07%2Bat%2B9.33.51%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VkZnUaPrwho/Vt1ZpUkTGaI/AAAAAAAADP4/wA8qaIadmLs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-07%2Bat%2B9.33.51%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />What's missing from this list is good shoemaking glue. I tried to source Klebfest which is non toxic and no odour shoemaking glue but I couldn't get it. It also comes in larger portions branded as Renia Aquilim but I can't seem to get that shipped to Australia. Instead I'm trying different brands of contact cement which are all highly smelly.<br /><br />I haven't found topline tape that can be shipped to Australia yet. I also haven't decided on what to buy to skive with. I'm currently using my cutting knife to do it which is achievable but it would be better to invest in a tool that's designed to skive.<br /><br />Materials I'm using which I already have:<br />- Mineral Turpentine<br />- Clear plastic bags<br />- Foam sheet<br />- Tack hammer<br />- Cutting Mat<br />- A3 paper and cardboard<br />- Masking tape 5cm width<br />- Pacer<br />- Compass<br />- Eraser<br />- Metal ruler<br /><br />I think that's it in the way of materials. I started following the lessons a week and a half ago and if you're following along on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/scaredstitchless/">Instagram</a>&nbsp;you might have seen the below pictures. I've learnt to make my own ballet flat pattern based on the shape of my last. I've cut the leather and lining, skived it, reinforced it and glued it together. I've prepared the patterns for the midsole, counters and toe puffs, cut them out and I began lasting my first shoe on the last today.<br /><br />It's hugely detailed work and every millimetre is well considered to ensure the right end result. I'm really enjoying the pace of it as I'm learning so much at each step.<br /><br />With any luck I should have finished wearable ballet flats within a week - woohoo!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mEhXTfkha2Y/Vt1iHofWgiI/AAAAAAAADQI/o3I1kmh3H74/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-07%2Bat%2B10.10.50%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mEhXTfkha2Y/Vt1iHofWgiI/AAAAAAAADQI/o3I1kmh3H74/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-07%2Bat%2B10.10.50%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/03/starting-with-shoemaking-courses-online.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-295382508389048670Tue, 09 Feb 2016 10:24:00 +00002016-02-09T21:24:55.759+11:00Living Slowly and the Aftereffects of Konmari - My life for the last 6 monthsHi There!<br /><br />Blogger tells me that I haven't posted since last September which is a heck of a long time! Some things have been shifting for me over the last couple of months which has lead to this unintentional blog silence. I can't say that I'm back for sure or even regularly but hey I'm back right this moment and that's enough for now.<br /><br />About 6 months ago I joined the KonMari frenzy which I spoke about&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/sewing-after-konmari.html">here</a>&nbsp;at great length. It really resonated with me and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of culling my belongings down to the things that brought me joy.<br /><br />Since that post I've managed to inspire hubby to cull a whole heap of things he had hanging around as well. Even though he didn't actually read the book he really seemed to get it. He kept saying that opening boxes was like looking into our past lives and past hobbies. We were hanging onto things that used to bring us joy but we'd both changed, our interests had shifted and it was time to recognise who we are now, what we actually want in our lives and let our past selves go.<br /><br />This whole process resulted in a huge garage sale 2 weekends ago which went quite well. We made more money than we thought and it was nice to see our long hoarded stuff being walked away by people who were happy to grab a bargain.<br /><br />I was a bit wary of letting go of all our books because there was somewhere between 200 and 300 of them. Even though we sold quite a few on the day of the garage sale we were still left with about 10 boxes of books afterwards. We actually ended up putting them out again the next day with an honesty box asking for $1 a book. A girl who lives around the corner from me bought the entire 10 boxes in one fell swoop at a package price after we realised that she'd done the same uni course as me at the same uni around the same kind of time. Turns out she'd just put the finishing touches on her manuscript for a novel she's been writing that she's already got a publishing deal for. This sale really hit home for me. The items that I treasured the most and found the hardest to get rid of were taking up residence on an author's shelves destined to be read and in some way used as inspiration in her daily life and perhaps one day her writing. If nothing else this moment validated it all for me. The things that weren't bringing me joy and were cluttering up my space could bring joy to someone else and be <i>just as meaningful</i>.<br /><br />Of course KonMari hasn't just stopped there. My house feels fresher, lighter and bigger. I hadn't realised until I moved all these items out just how stuck I'd felt in my life. I feel like I've been given a surge of new energy over the past couple of weeks which has all come from a renewed sense of order and joy in the belongings that surround me. I'm in control of my space not the other way around. Liberating, profound and simple.<br /><br />And it's not over. Even though I've let go of a lot of <i>things </i>and even though my house feels different I'm still yet to rearrange what I've kept into their forever spots. I'm still revelling in the part of the process where I've fallen back in love with my house and I'm quietly observing where things should be kept now that they are <i>the chosen items.</i><br /><i><br /></i>I'm still excited for the next part of the process where I rearrange things and I'm enjoying less clutter to clean up each week.<br /><br />Apart from KonMari I've also been learning to live slower. About 4 months ago I got a new job working at a theatre locally to me. As in a 7 minute walk to work kind of local instead of a 3 hour daily commute. Needless to say it has been truly life changing. This new job comes with an RDO every 3 weeks and an hour long lunch break each day.<br /><br />It's hard to explain just how much more living I've been doing as a result. I now have a big cooked breakfast every morning before work - because I have the time. I now cook up batches of lunches for the week - because I have the time. I now walk home and spend my hour long lunch break with my dog and sometimes my husband too - because I have the time. I now have something like 2 long weekends a month all dedicated to living more - because I have the time. Because life felt so incredibly fast and stressful before it's like I'm permanently on a bit of a holiday in my own life. Except it's real and it's every day.<br /><br />I wondered whether all this time would result in more sewing but it's actually had the opposite effect. Something about Konmari still has my sewing output quite low and understandably so. Instead I've been super inspired in lots of other ways.<br /><br />For instance we bough a vintage caravan a couple of months ago that I'm now starting to do up. She was built in 1956 in Leichhardt Sydney and I've gotten stuck into pulling out the doors, sanding back the walls and pulling out the old upholstery so I can redo it all. I can't WAIT until we can go caravanning in her in the next couple of months!<br /><br />For my Christmas present I got a 3 month membership to ShoeMakingCoursesOnline.com and I've slowly been working my way through watching hundreds of hours of incredibly detailed content on how to make 17 different types of shoes. I've spent ages sourcing all the materials for making shoes her way and I'm now just waiting on my shoe glue and my new shoe lasts to arrive before I can get stuck into pattern making and then shoemaking!!<br /><br />She ran an online seminar the other day about making your dream shoes which just about made my head explode. Do you remember when you first started making clothes and you realised what Frankenpatterning was? Where you could take the best parts of this pattern and mash it up with the best parts of that pattern and bring it all together to make something greater than the original? Well that's what this seminar was about. It explained how if you sign up to her paid classes on shoe design she will actually teach you how to frankenpattern any type of shoe ANY type of shoe by working off your basic patterns for each type of shoe. MIND. BLOWN.<br /><br /><br />Apart from all this inspiration I've also been influenced a great deal by a book and a documentary I read and saw at the end of last year. The book was called In Defense of Food and confirmed all of my suspicions about how badly I eat. If you know you eat too much sugar and want to figure out a way to eat better this is most definitely the book for you to read. I happened to read it around the same time as watching the documentary That Sugar Film which just hit home all over again. My eating habits are actually destructive to my body and I was caught in a loop I couldn't get out of. I've cut down my sugar intake and I'm slowly replacing packaged food with wholesome home cooked food. This was not something I could have a knee-jerk reaction about and try and quit all at once because I have quite an alarming addiction to sugar. I'm working on it slowly and even when I falter I'm much more aware of my choices and why I'm reaching for packaged foods which in itself is enough sometimes.<br /><br />So there you have it. The last 6 or so months of my life has been about slowing down, refocussing and continually being inspired but not necessarily in the areas of sewing which is why I haven't shared anything. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be back here talking about sewing anytime soon and I think that's ok. I'm incredibly impatient to make myself some shoes with all this mind expanding knowledge I've acquired so I suspect this may turn into more of a shoemaking blog for a while.<br /><br />I hope to be back soon with some things I can wear on my feet. Until then I hope some joy finds it's way into your life in one way or another.http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2016/02/living-slowly-and-aftereffects-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-3807859710182227050Tue, 22 Sep 2015 10:17:00 +00002015-09-22T21:07:23.106+10:00Leather Tote Bag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxWzrR1e3wE/VgEZ2lthWKI/AAAAAAAADK8/oKKZAd7DDUI/s1600/IMG_9444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxWzrR1e3wE/VgEZ2lthWKI/AAAAAAAADK8/oKKZAd7DDUI/s640/IMG_9444.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I was in The Fabric Store the other week patting lots of gorgeous leathers wondering what I could buy to make myself a pair of sandals from. I had some birthday money to spend and had just received a shiny new sewing machine which I knew would handle sewing leather (more on that later!). I came across a half hide of this vibrant blue leather you see above and knew it was The One. When I unrolled it I realised I had enough to make multiple projects from it and so the idea was born to make myself a bag and a matching pair of shoes. Best. Idea. Ever.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I spoke in my last post&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/sewing-after-konmari.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238); color: #021eaa;">Sewing after Konmari</span></a>&nbsp;about how decluttering my life had lead me to refocus the way I sew. I was so overwhelmingly ready to tackle all the projects I'd put off as too hard. This clarity coupled with the fact that I recently started playing around with making my own leather sandals was what lead me to snap up this hide and face the fear of making my own leather bag.<br />I figured if I kept it as simple as possible, planned out all the details and made a mock up then I could achieve it. I'm assuming there are a few of you out there that want to do the same thing because I had quite a response to how I'd made it, what needles, thread, pattern etc so reader beware this will be quite an involved post.<br /><br />I started by grabbing a few tote bags I had around the house and picking different elements from each of them. I discovered that I like tote bags with a square bottom to them with long and really sturdy straps. So that's where I started. I sketched out a plan with some measurements that worked for me and sewed a quick mock up in some scrap cotton to test the dimensions. I ended up with the following measurements.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QJHE60GRcwc/VgEgpquxzjI/AAAAAAAADLM/j5TA5gUP420/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-21%2Bat%2B10.25.05%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QJHE60GRcwc/VgEgpquxzjI/AAAAAAAADLM/j5TA5gUP420/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-21%2Bat%2B10.25.05%2Bpm.png" width="490" /></a></div><div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I highly recommend making a pattern from your measurements from paper or cardboard to lay onto the leather for cutting. I measured this out really, really carefully with a ruler but still managed to cut it slightly wonky. It was easily fixed by straightening up the lines once I'd folded the piece on the dotted line but still, it's leather. Take the time. It's worth it. I used my rotary cutter on my cutting mat as normal and it cut straight through the leather no troubles.<br /><br />Having the cutouts you see on the sides there meant I could have a square bottom to the bag without any bulk. If you're not sure how to sew this together you should google or pinterest sewing a square bottom bag. It's ridiculously easy. Trust me.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9GwPhDhbgW8/VgEg_6HqodI/AAAAAAAADLU/LXeIlIiax_k/s1600/IMG_9393.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9GwPhDhbgW8/VgEg_6HqodI/AAAAAAAADLU/LXeIlIiax_k/s640/IMG_9393.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jn9yPyIJprY/VgEhQV-kGFI/AAAAAAAADLc/VCBzbQrCrc4/s1600/IMG_9391.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jn9yPyIJprY/VgEhQV-kGFI/AAAAAAAADLc/VCBzbQrCrc4/s640/IMG_9391.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I sewed the side seams at a 1cm seam allowance but you could add more width to the pattern before starting if you want to give yourself some more allowance.<br /><br />It's funny that I sewed up a small scrap of leather first and my machine refused to sew the leather with a leather needle in. However when I put the universal needle back in it was fine to sew through it. I had to change my tension to 9 to get the stitches nice and even but once I'd figured that out it was humming along nicely. And to be sure my test piece was 3 layers of leather to make sure it could sew bulk as well. I used regular thread for this and had no troubles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T5TPRsPm5Z4/VgEhz47w2HI/AAAAAAAADLk/RxyPLXd0CcA/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-21%2Bat%2B10.46.56%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T5TPRsPm5Z4/VgEhz47w2HI/AAAAAAAADLk/RxyPLXd0CcA/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-21%2Bat%2B10.46.56%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">Once the side seams were sewn together I turned the bag right side out and realised it would need a little help keeping those seams looking neat. The photo on the left above shows what the seams look like straight off the sewing machine. I turned it on itself again and got my hammer out. Life got you down? Hammer those seams! Bad day at work? Hammer those seams! Not enough time in your life to sew? Hammer those seams!! It's therapeutic.<br /><br />Also top tip from Rosie at&nbsp;<a href="http://artworkerprojects.com/"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238); color: #021eaa;">Artworker Projects</span></a>&nbsp;- boil a kettle and hold the leather over the steam to make it more pliable before working with it - works a treat! Also I love that a hammer and kettle have snuck into my sewing tool arsenal. Best.<br /><br />As you can see from the picture on the right above the whole bag looks nicer, cleaner and more professional once you've hammered those seams. Hammers are friends now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BguPcgVcoPc/VgEiJ9dv6II/AAAAAAAADLs/z34MtL4LecA/s1600/IMG_9401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="508" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BguPcgVcoPc/VgEiJ9dv6II/AAAAAAAADLs/z34MtL4LecA/s640/IMG_9401.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I decided on 70cm long straps but spent a full week mulling over how best to construct and sew them. I knew I wanted to have two layers of leather which would be sewn together to make for a sturdier strap. What I didn't know was how to sew them without creating too much bulk. I toyed with stripping back the fleshy part of the leather to reduce bulk where the strap met the bag but this would still add weight to the strap when the bag lay open and I was fond of the bag being able to stand up by itself as much as the leather would allow. I knew I wanted a 3cm wide strap and so a 3cm long section of the strap would be nice to be sewn onto the bag to make a square I could sew an X into to make the whole thing neat. In the end I chose to cut piece 1 of the strap at 70cm and piece 2 of the strap at 76cm which would give me the spare 3cm at either end.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ex-8usL1EFA/VgEikBdoZ6I/AAAAAAAADL0/9MRQuGMR8iQ/s1600/IMG_9404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ex-8usL1EFA/VgEikBdoZ6I/AAAAAAAADL0/9MRQuGMR8iQ/s640/IMG_9404.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I took my time topstitching the straps and then neatening the edges with my rotary cutter afterwards. Once the straps were sewn together I butted piece 1 up against the edge of the bag and sewed piece 2 down. This was probably the most terrifying part of the whole thing- topstitching that had to be straight and perfect to create a square and then an X in the middle of it. I had to take breaks throughout this process so I didn't psych myself out.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b1z98Bh6zio/VgEi7P2a-VI/AAAAAAAADL8/40f_6EOSK8E/s1600/IMG_9456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b1z98Bh6zio/VgEi7P2a-VI/AAAAAAAADL8/40f_6EOSK8E/s640/IMG_9456.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I love the way the straps turned out. They sit flush with the top of the bag when being carried but fold over neatly when hanging open and don't pull the bag down with their weight. It's really satisfying.<br /><br />And here's what the bag looks like on the inside.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nBeu0KLMiz0/VgEluhGWrNI/AAAAAAAADMI/o-k_WHD9iok/s1600/IMG_9451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nBeu0KLMiz0/VgEluhGWrNI/AAAAAAAADMI/o-k_WHD9iok/s640/IMG_9451.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I bought some products to seal the suede and keep the leather conditioned which I'm yet to apply to the bag. I've also left all the edges raw. I'll be buying some burnishing wax really soon seeing as I'll need it for this as well as any leather sandals I make in the future. But it'll be ok to use for a little while until I seal it properly. I just won't be taking it out in the rain in a hurry.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aDf2bmXRPFI/VgEqi3DXhHI/AAAAAAAADMg/Y3M-GdoQFSI/s1600/IMG_9433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aDf2bmXRPFI/VgEqi3DXhHI/AAAAAAAADMg/Y3M-GdoQFSI/s640/IMG_9433.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">So that's the story of my leather tote bag. I had to cut this out of the half hide first to make sure I'd be able to get all the pieces out of it. The next project for this leather is to make a pair of matching sandals to go with the bag. I'm excited!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t9tkz0LdooA/VgEodwwNeBI/AAAAAAAADMU/d9tVQv-FhOM/s1600/IMG_9305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t9tkz0LdooA/VgEodwwNeBI/AAAAAAAADMU/d9tVQv-FhOM/s640/IMG_9305.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">I made a mock up of a leather sandal the other week and learnt a lot so I'll be tweaking a few things about the pattern before attempting the sandals. Can't wait!</div></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/09/leather-tote-bag.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-725657175291103688Fri, 21 Aug 2015 13:55:00 +00002015-08-23T19:47:19.137+10:00Sewing after KonmariKonmari is a powerful thing. It's been the single most effective method for teaching me to live with less, to curate my belongings and really love what I own.<br /><br />I saw this book <i>The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising</i> on instagram. All over it in fact. It seems everyone in blogland was getting their hands on this book and changing their lives. I wasn't sure what this book could really offer me. I mean I'm creative by nature which means I'm absent minded. I put things down, get distracted, wander off and then wonder where I put that Really Important Thing. I spend ages looking for it only to find it in some nonsensical or sometimes really obvious spot.<br /><br />Things don't always have homes when you are this way.<br /><br />Also I'm very much a Right This Moment kind of person. If some idea strikes me I put everything down and go in the direction of the idea often leaving things scattered about the house in my wake. I know I'll come back to them later. Cleaning is always for later. Later, later, later. The idea is always more important, cleaning up the boring things that aren't giving me inspiration is not.<br /><br />So it's fair to say that my house is not tidy.<br /><br />With that said how did this little book with a simple message cut through all that?<br /><br />With joy.<br /><br />The idea is simple and powerful. Take the things you own. Put them in your hands, those hands of yours that have veins flowing right to your heart, and measure the joy or absence of joy you feel by holding these objects close.<br /><br />I wasn't really a believer as I was reading the book to be honest but there was this incredibly powerful urge to try it nonetheless. No sooner had I read about purging my wardrobe than I was on the floor of my bedroom heaving my tatty collection of shoes onto the floor. I gripped those suckers in my hands and willed my heart to decide whether to keep them or not. And wouldn't you know it. My joy-o-meter was already fully functioning without me knowing. I was piling up shoes to give the old heave-ho quicker than you can say&nbsp;<i>The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising</i>. It's a pretty long title though don't you think?<br /><br />To give you some perspective on this giddy beginning I am one of those people who doesn't drive. I have my Learner's permit which I've had on and off for the last 15 years with about as many hours driving experience. This means I walk EVERYWHERE and don't my shoes know it. I hold onto shoes far too long. I put them in the back recesses of my wardobe and think I can't possibly wear them out in public anymore. But then I can't possibly throw them away. They're like my lifelong pals or something. Anyway, it's weird. That was until I Konmari-ed the sh*t out of my shoe collection. Giddy I was. Giddy I tell you. Suddenly I wanted to throw EVERYTHING out.<br /><br />My clothes, including my handmades, were no obstacle for this girl. I was on a rampage. I went through every bit of storage we had in our bedroom (we have a quite a lot because of built ins) and I tossed out box after box of stuff I would normally have called <i>sentimental</i> or <i>lovely memories.</i>&nbsp;They weren't lovely memories, let me tell you. They were things, objects I didn't need and just made me feel guilty when I opened up boxes. Oh so-and-so gave me that, I should probably put it on display somewhere. Like my house is a giant museum of outdated objects that the other person has probably completely forgotten they gifted them to me.<br /><br />I stared down not one but two overflowing Ikea Expedit's crammed full of books. Books that sat gathering dust on the shelves while I happily wandered to the library every Saturday morning. I even found myself borrowing something from the library that I had on one of my bookshelves but it was just more exciting to borrow it than to fetch it, dust it off and read it from my forgotten bookshelves. We ended up piling up the books we <i>did</i> want to keep and cramming an entire Expedit full of all the books which wouldn't make it.<br /><br />To be clear all this stuff I had accumulated that I didn't want made it's way to our garage. We'll be organising a giant garage sale in the coming weeks and I mean <i>giant</i>.<br /><br />So where does this leave me with sewing? I know this is a sensitive topic for some because I've seen a bit of conversation about it on instagram as we sewists navigate letting go of the most beloved things we own in our houses. My sewing room was not brutal like the rest of my house. My tossing out of patterns (for the garage sale remember? Calm down) was pretty frenzied, my crafty stash of buttons and beads a little less so and then fabric was the smallest pile.<br /><br />The hardest thing for me to justify letting go is fabric. I'm one of those people that actually makes muslins now. So any fabric, no matter how hideous, is useful. I can carve it up, draw all over it and perfect it to my heart's content. All in the name of learning.<br /><br />So I didn't really cull the stash much. Although to be fair my entire stash fits in 4 squares of an Expedit. Which I imagine is pretty small by most sewists standards.<br /><br />This exercise was great for my sewing. Let's face it most things are incredibly inspiring when it comes to sewing. Oh look I cleaned enough to see the floor - let me sew something! Oh look I discovered that really great pattern from the internet in my existing pattern stash already - let me sew it immediately! Oh look I hung all my tools back up on my pegboard - let me sew something! You get the idea.<br /><br />My Konmari was quite a few weeks ago now though and I've started to feel uneasy about my sewing. There was something really wonderful about the fervour of Konmari. It really hones in on what brings you joy and what you really don't need hanging about cluttering up the place. And while I don't have an excessive stash of fabric or patterns (even less so now) this idea of joy is bugging me more now than ever.<br /><br />I thought it was nice that I came out of Konmari ready to muslin my first pair of pants, my first jacket, my first attempt at sewing for hubby, my first attempt at sewing a swimming cossie. I thought it was both great and convenient that I was so ultra focussed that all the things that had fear attached to them seemed to jump to the top of the queue without question.&nbsp;<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">But I didn't know </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">why.</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">&nbsp;Why can't I sew another dress anymore? Why can't I sew another shirt anymore? Why? Why? Why?&nbsp;</span><br /><br />Apart from the nasty episode with my sewing machine being in for a service for way too long, I've been avoiding my sewing room without reason for far too long. I've finished some projects off that I've started but I can't bring myself to make anything new from start to finish.<br /><br />But it dawned on me the other day. The reason for my discontent.<br /><br />I have too much joy.<br /><br />That might sound ridiculous, so stay with me here. When I make a new dress it brings me a sh*t ton of joy. I get the joy of buying fabric, the joy of sewing it, the joy of instagramming it, the joy of blogging it and then the ongoing joy of wearing it. That's not too much joy. That's normal for us.<br />What's got me in a bind is how many things I make for myself. Last year I made myself a great jersey winter dress and loved that dress to death. Not actually. It's great fabric so it still looks the same today as it did the day I made it, but you get what I'm saying. This year I decided I loved that winter dress so much that I would make another and another and another and another out of jersey, ponte and scuba and then I loved them so much I made another winter dress in chambray.<br /><br />So. Much. Joy.<br /><br />SO. MANY. DRESSES.<br /><br />But when is it too much joy?<br /><br />Just because I can make myself a ton of dresses and bring myself joy along the way<i> and </i>every single time I hold them in my hands, does that justify it? Is it ok for me to have a collection of dresses that eventually won't fit into my wardrobe just because it brings me joy? Doesn't this cycle get selfish somewhere along the way? And unsustainable?<br /><br />Here is the crux of simplifying things. I don't want so many handmade clothes anymore. I mean I want the ones I've made. I love them. They define me.<br /><br />But maybe I don't want to churn out clothes just because I'm at a skill level where I can look at a piece of fabric and just about turn it into whatever I like.<br /><br />I think it really is time to pull back on wardrobe filling. I don't want to play the RTW game with handmades.<br /><br />That's why I want to sew in unchartered territory. Make some pants, a jacket, a few great shirts for my husband. Sure I'll make stuff for myself along the way. I'll allow myself to be frivolous from time to time but I don't want the burden of all that joy overflowing from my wardrobe.<br /><br />Know what I mean?http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/08/sewing-after-konmari.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-6215889233082380707Sun, 16 Aug 2015 04:45:00 +00002015-08-16T15:01:27.699+10:00Sewaholic Shirt Dress - Oakridge + Hollyburn + Cambie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNNus4IItcw/VdANsMTjJBI/AAAAAAAADGc/62C1zhGlMHg/s1600/IMG_9226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="502" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNNus4IItcw/VdANsMTjJBI/AAAAAAAADGc/62C1zhGlMHg/s640/IMG_9226.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm a Sewaholic girl. You probably know that by now and don't need me to tell you. So when I decided to make myself a shirt dress it seemed perfectly normal to me not to buy a new pattern but to mash up some patterns I already knew fitted and suited me well.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This Shirt Dress is a mashup of Sewholic's Oakridge Shirt which I made&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/sewaholic-oakridge-in-cloud-9-fabric.html">here</a>&nbsp;and the Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt which I&nbsp;made&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/two-linen-hollyburn-skirts.html">here</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/blue-hollyburn-skirt.html">here</a>. I also added in the waistband from the Sewaholic Cambie which I made <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/cambie-lbd.html">here</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/blue-clouds-cambie-dress.html">here</a>. I know these patterns well. They fit me, they suit me and I wear them a lot. So it just made sense to put them together to make a dress out of them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8yD7UbSzRs/VdAT3S4ieRI/AAAAAAAADGs/n9-otUeb3S0/s1600/IMG_9227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="486" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8yD7UbSzRs/VdAT3S4ieRI/AAAAAAAADGs/n9-otUeb3S0/s640/IMG_9227.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I cut the Oakridge down to my natural waist and pinned the Cambie waistband to it. It showed me that the top part was going to be quite blousey rather than fitted. I ended up liking the slightly looser feel of the top and cut a longer Cambie waistband so it would accommodate the little bit of ease. Once I was happy with the fit I sewed the Oakridge pieces together as per the instructions, sewed the Hollyburn pieces together as per the instructions then sewed the Oakridge and the Hollyburn to the Cambie waistband. The pieces were obviously not perfectly aligned since they weren't designed to go together but I'd cut a longer waistband so it was easy to sew it together and just use the fabric I actually needed.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nBo4ZWfYXAk/VdAUFbhHdPI/AAAAAAAADG0/QjGUzbE8_Uk/s1600/IMG_9231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="484" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nBo4ZWfYXAk/VdAUFbhHdPI/AAAAAAAADG0/QjGUzbE8_Uk/s640/IMG_9231.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While I was cutting all my pieces out I measured from my collarbone down to my knee to make sure I was cutting a placket piece long enough. I remember adding a little extra length on again just in case. It was a simple matter of laying the placket piece on the fabric and extending the piece down to the measurement I'd taken.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I sewed the placket up as normal, sewed on the collar/bow piece and it all came together really smoothly.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I made it from a plum/purple coloured polka dot chambray I bought from fabric.com a while ago. I've always loved the look of other people's chambray clothes and decided I needed to try it myself. It's lovely to sew with and just as lovely to wear. I think there'll be a lot more of it in my wardrobe before too long.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-svlk_OUpLyA/VdAUXtP94YI/AAAAAAAADG8/ODI8rUbFxOw/s1600/IMG_9233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="486" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-svlk_OUpLyA/VdAUXtP94YI/AAAAAAAADG8/ODI8rUbFxOw/s640/IMG_9233.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Everything went well on this make except of course for my sewing machine. Which was having serious issues with holding tension at the time. I once spent 2 hours trying to fix the tension and nothing I did could fix it. I took it in for a service which, instead of taking 7-10 days like they quoted, took 4 WEEKS. Once I got the machine back it was sewing much more nicely but they hadn't bothered to fix the tension properly which I had to fix myself. Luckily the machine was behaving enough for me to be able to do that. Ugh never going there again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All that I was left with was sewing 12 buttonholes to get this girl finished. Thankfully my machine didn't eat the dress after all that and I managed to hand sew 11 buttons onto the dress. The 12th button &nbsp;which was intended as the last button at the bottom of the placket went MIA so if anyone finds it let me know, k?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iDleRr5t4-I/VdAUsz_ZJmI/AAAAAAAADHE/Gn9Tf5QeU5Y/s1600/IMG_9213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="516" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iDleRr5t4-I/VdAUsz_ZJmI/AAAAAAAADHE/Gn9Tf5QeU5Y/s640/IMG_9213.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/08/sewaholic-shirt-dress-oakridge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-5869245620108530802Tue, 28 Jul 2015 08:54:00 +00002015-07-28T18:54:02.066+10:00Sewaholic Oakridge in Cloud 9 Fabric<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tfezwb0WPTw/VbcsCnfIOxI/AAAAAAAADFQ/95O5S0ic4_c/s1600/IMG_9157.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tfezwb0WPTw/VbcsCnfIOxI/AAAAAAAADFQ/95O5S0ic4_c/s640/IMG_9157.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'm back again with another piece that I sewed a while ago and has had a bit of wear at work. It's the Sewaholic Oakridge without the bow and cuffs. This pattern is kind of perfect for me. I love a simple rounded neckline on tops and I love having the option of adding in the bow. The shape of it is really slim so it's flattering for a pear shape. I ordinarily avoid button up shirts like the plague because they tend to make my torso a bit rectangular and draw attention to the size of my hips which is obviously my widest point. Tasia gets that making a shirt pattern work for a pear shape means keeping everything very slimline and really nipping the silhouette in at the bust and waist to make sure it balances out against your hips.<br /><br />Based on my measurements I made an 8 bust grading to a 10 waist and hips. I was a bit worried about the sizing to be honest. Every single Sewaholic top I've made I've had to size down to an 8 after finding that their version of a 10 swims a bit on me. However this is a super slim fit and I only just fit into the bust of this shirt. I always wondered if my measurements would catch up with me one day. Most of my bust measurement is my ribcage not my bust - like more than normal, if that makes sense.<br /><br />This is the first time I've encountered pulling in the bust region - I guess I should enjoy this moment a little? I've still got 2 more versions of this shirt in the works (more on that later) that are cut against the same measurements so if I happen to make a 4th version I think I'll make it a straight size 10.<br /><br />This photo below probably gives you the best idea of the fit and sizing. The shirt looks fine with my arms down but as soon as I use my arms for anything it pulls. To be honest I can feel this a little when I wear it but I hadn't realised just how bad it was until I took these photos. It's handy having a blog sometimes!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UsOmjY7nIOM/VbcwXZ7m1jI/AAAAAAAADFc/UbDDkPARV0A/s1600/IMG_9147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UsOmjY7nIOM/VbcwXZ7m1jI/AAAAAAAADFc/UbDDkPARV0A/s640/IMG_9147.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />The sleeves on this pattern are also super slim. I love them but I'm torn between keeping them this size or sizing up a smidge just for a bit more elbow room. Also seeing as this was my first time sewing up a button up long sleeved shirt I kind of forgot to measure the length of the sleeves before going to attach the cuff. This is obviously quite a mistake when you're 5"2. Once I realised my mistake I also realised the sleeves were the perfect length sans cuff which is 6 centimetres shy of what they should be. Since the placket on the sleeve was also 6 centimetres and I'd already sewn it on I kind of just had to hem them and sew on a snap. It's not the prettiest solution but it works.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FNGQ6wZxxD0/Vbcy-z3kXqI/AAAAAAAADFo/00lTDLJXqJ0/s1600/IMG_9151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FNGQ6wZxxD0/Vbcy-z3kXqI/AAAAAAAADFo/00lTDLJXqJ0/s640/IMG_9151.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'm always a little bit terrified of sewing the buttonholes on last but these turned out perfectly. Turns out I didn't need all that procrastination.<br /><br />It has a little bit of pooling in the lower back but nothing I can't deal with. I think I'll predominantly making this pattern in silks and crepe de chines and tucking them into skirts so I'm not too fussed.<br /><br />I made this first version in cotton because I could easily fix any fit issues by sneaking any extra fabric from the seam allowances but I didn't really need to. Every other version I have planned is silk or crepe de chine so I wanted to steer clear of french seams on a shirt I hadn't muslined.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JWskksfF5mU/Vbc1HBVvAVI/AAAAAAAADF0/bSi4PBBOBPc/s1600/IMG_9150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="520" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JWskksfF5mU/Vbc1HBVvAVI/AAAAAAAADF0/bSi4PBBOBPc/s640/IMG_9150.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />The very next version I cut out straight after making this one is a peach cotton silk with a subtle polkadot running through it. It's been maturing in my stash waiting for the perfect pattern and I'm so glad it is turning into an Oakridge. I looks quite pink in the below photo when I was deliberating over which buttons to use. Such is my fear of sewing buttonholes that I started on one cuff and my sewing machine crapped itself half way through the button hole. So it's sitting on a hanger about 99% done until I get up the courage to try out some buttonholes again.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5e71GyJQTaI/Vbc4VwRns0I/AAAAAAAADGA/ED9CwgQiFQs/s1600/IMG_9162.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5e71GyJQTaI/Vbc4VwRns0I/AAAAAAAADGA/ED9CwgQiFQs/s640/IMG_9162.PNG" width="636" /></a></div><br />I've also got quite an epic Oakridge in the pipeline at the moment too. It's the ultimate Sewaholic mashup with an Oakridge down to the waist, a Hollyburn skirt and a Cambie waistband to keep it all hanging nicely. It's in this lovely purple polka dot chambray. It too is about 99% finished and only requires buttonholes. I'm sensing a theme here.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yoh5E4wNHPc/Vbc5ScRKw5I/AAAAAAAADGM/NtlLwejagjo/s1600/IMG_9163.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yoh5E4wNHPc/Vbc5ScRKw5I/AAAAAAAADGM/NtlLwejagjo/s640/IMG_9163.PNG" width="638" /></a></div><br />All in all this is a great pattern and I think I'll be making more. I think sizing up the bust and the sleeves will make for a perfect fitting shirt.http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/07/sewaholic-oakridge-in-cloud-9-fabric.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-4572730527551943190Sun, 05 Jul 2015 05:44:00 +00002015-07-05T15:44:47.157+10:00Two Linen Hollyburn Skirts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J0xHZP69i3M/VZi8f0ko_lI/AAAAAAAADD8/yuENzGwrPZM/s1600/IMG_9032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J0xHZP69i3M/VZi8f0ko_lI/AAAAAAAADD8/yuENzGwrPZM/s640/IMG_9032.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I love the shape of the Hollyburn skirt. I made&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/blue-hollyburn-skirt.html">this one</a>&nbsp;a while ago but I neglected to cut the two front pieces on the right grain line. I cut them on the fold and ended up with a skirt that had a lot of swish at the side seams but no swish in the centre front. I'd been meaning to sew another one up for ages but it wasn't until I spied this mint green linen at My Hung that it all fell into place.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9v5oo4ovi44/VZi9_FP0IrI/AAAAAAAADEQ/FDqw_Kvgir0/s1600/IMG_9042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9v5oo4ovi44/VZi9_FP0IrI/AAAAAAAADEQ/FDqw_Kvgir0/s640/IMG_9042.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This pattern is a pretty easy sew except for the waistline for me. I realise this is now a problem area for me after making 3 different types of skirts with straight waistbands. My pear-shaped-ness is most pronounced right at my waist and literally within 2-3cm below my waist my measurements climb rapidly so there's no hope for a straight waistband to ever sit flat on me. To fix the problem on this one I ended up pinning the zipper into place at the back and sewing it in with a 3cm seam allowance at the top, grading to nothing by the end of the zipper. It's a clunky fix and I'd much rather learn to draft a curved waistband so I can do this forevermore but for this skirt (and the one following) it's good enough.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C3tptkTO6-A/VZi_mJPmP8I/AAAAAAAADEc/BmENdOpt6l0/s1600/IMG_9037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C3tptkTO6-A/VZi_mJPmP8I/AAAAAAAADEc/BmENdOpt6l0/s640/IMG_9037.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The linen was great to work with and I now understand the crinkle-fest that comes with wearing linen. I adore the mint green shade of this fabric but it's unfortunately a bit sheer so it doesn't get worn as much as my other Hollyburn because of that. I'm wearing it here with a Burdastyle Lydia made in a knit from Spotlight.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CNTrK-JOPiU/VZjAVFZwIZI/AAAAAAAADEk/nD6XNlUA1CA/s1600/IMG_9046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CNTrK-JOPiU/VZjAVFZwIZI/AAAAAAAADEk/nD6XNlUA1CA/s640/IMG_9046.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>This version of the Hollyburn is made exactly the same as the mint green one. Only this one is a cotton linen blend. I have to say that while I loved working with the linen I enjoyed sewing and wearing this one more. The cotton content means that it doesn't wrinkle like crazy and it has a bit more body to it. You might not be able to tell from these photos but the linen really drapes whereas the cotton linen is just a bit sharper and crisper and has body to hold the silhouette better.<br /><br />I think if I sew with linen again I'll always try to pick a cotton linen blend.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L1Y_RPrU5AE/VZjBo0X_k9I/AAAAAAAADE4/OlFHwIXvkAE/s1600/IMG_9049.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L1Y_RPrU5AE/VZjBo0X_k9I/AAAAAAAADE4/OlFHwIXvkAE/s640/IMG_9049.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I love that this skirt is versatile enough that I can wear it in all seasons. The mint linen version got worn more in autumn whereas this navy cotton linen version has been great to wear with tights during winter. I'm wearing it here with my&nbsp;<a href="http://black &amp; white striped peplum top">black &amp; white striped peplum top</a>. I went a bit mad over peplum tops 3 years ago and wasn't sure what to do with them now that I've fallen out of love with the silhouette. Luckily they're perfect for this kind of skirt that sits right on your waist and hides the peplum away.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzxXPVvPfds/VZjB3KVYfvI/AAAAAAAADFA/U7ooeZzzL4g/s1600/IMG_9054.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzxXPVvPfds/VZjB3KVYfvI/AAAAAAAADFA/U7ooeZzzL4g/s640/IMG_9054.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'm not sure I'm done with this pattern yet because it's just such a great skirt and it fits into my wardrobe really well. Two versions should do me for this year at least though!http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/07/two-linen-hollyburn-skirts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-3118794743261621567Tue, 30 Jun 2015 07:20:00 +00002015-06-30T17:20:32.281+10:00Lekala 4345 - An instant TNT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPNkJHgDaB4/VY_WhzIhaAI/AAAAAAAADC0/AaOOgPqsKN0/s1600/IMG_8941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPNkJHgDaB4/VY_WhzIhaAI/AAAAAAAADC0/AaOOgPqsKN0/s640/IMG_8941.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I've found a new favourite dress pattern! I've been eyeing off the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lekala.co/">Lekala</a>&nbsp;website for ages now wondering whether to take the leap with their patterns or not. If you haven't come across them yet you might want to get your credit card at the ready before clicking through. They have thousands and thousands of patterns to trawl through. Their point of difference is their sizing though. Instead of downloading a multi size pattern or even a single size pattern this site has you plug in your exact measurements. It then works some pattern making magic and emails you through your unique copy of the pattern based on those measurements. It's pdf only which I don't mind and every pattern on their site is around $3. I've had great success with their patterns fitting straight out of the "envelope" so I can highly recommend them so far.<br /><br />The only thing I will warn you about is if you're pear shaped and /or have a flat belly. They make you enter a full hip measurement that needs to be higher than your hip measurement (which mine isn't because of my flat belly). Mine was basically the same but since I had to enter a higher number I made my full hip 2 cm bigger than my hip measurement. I ended up having to take this 2cm out of the dress when making it the first time. Not a huge deal as I'm pretty sure this would be a massive drawcard to anyone with a bit of a belly but something to think about when plugging in your measurements.<br /><br />So let's talk about the dress! It's <a href="http://www.lekala.co/catalog/dresses/4345#model">Lekala 4345</a>&nbsp;and as you can see from the line drawing below it has quite a lot of pattern pieces.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1WNqLIr0SA/VY_F-FPy7KI/AAAAAAAADBU/oTFgDRF1sTQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-28%2Bat%2B7.07.54%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1WNqLIr0SA/VY_F-FPy7KI/AAAAAAAADBU/oTFgDRF1sTQ/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-28%2Bat%2B7.07.54%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was drawn to this pattern firstly because the shape of it is something I love to wear. Secondly it has princess seams across the bust which makes for a great fit for a small busted lady like myself. Although I'm sure they're good for a bigger bust too? I also loved that although it has a full skirt the fullness doesn't start at the actual waist. That middle panel across the waistline makes sure everything lies flat against your belly and only introduces all of the fullness gradually across that arc. I find this super flattering and it's the reason I found myself making 3 of these in quick succession.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X7-OTfL4gM4/VY_XOK2RqBI/AAAAAAAADC8/IfGxkbS_ZHA/s1600/IMG_8943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="474" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X7-OTfL4gM4/VY_XOK2RqBI/AAAAAAAADC8/IfGxkbS_ZHA/s640/IMG_8943.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>The first version I made was back when the weather was a bit warmer. I used this bright and heavy cotton pique fabric which gave the skirt a bit more fullness. I initially made it with the little cap sleeves but they were an epic fail. They sewed on fine but they looked absolutely awful on and were so tight they would likely cut off blood circulation. I haven't had any problems with my shoulder width before (or maybe I haven't noticed) but my shoulders were most definitely way too wide for this pattern. Luckily the dress looks great sleeveless so I was able to sew bias binding around the arm holes and move on with my life. Also I have to mention just how great the armscye is on this pattern. The way it fits the body and the shape of it is really comfy and pleasing. I never thought I'd say that about an armscye but I bloody love this one.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nvHRrGLIhdE/VY_XpeVef1I/AAAAAAAADDE/SgzANSVpO1E/s1600/IMG_8945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nvHRrGLIhdE/VY_XpeVef1I/AAAAAAAADDE/SgzANSVpO1E/s640/IMG_8945.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I sewed a lapped zipper because that's my preference. I love how the back has the same shaped pieces as the front so it continues the fit round the middle and the same fullness in the skirt. I find this dress so fun and swishy to wear.<br /><br />As soon as I started to wear this dress I imagined making a long sleeved version in ponte. As the weather cooled down I made a plan to sew up a bunch of warm winter dresses and this pattern didn't disappoint. I had to modify it a little bit to make it all work out but it wasn't very hard. Since I was going to omit the zipper I laid out my pattern pieces and figured out what needed to be cut on the fold instead. I laid the front side pieces over the Burdastyle Lydia (read Renfrew if you have that pattern?) which I use as my knit block. I redrew the front side pattern piece using the armscye from my knit block. I did the same on the back side pattern piece and then used my regular long sleeve from my knit block and everything went swimmingly around the armhole/arms. The only thing I hadn't figured out in advance was what seam allowance to sew it at seeing as I was allowing for some negative stretch. I knew since I was using ponte it would be more stable and less stretchy than a regular knit so I sewed the front top pieces and back top pieces with a 1.5 cm seam allowance rather than a 1cm seam allowance. This pretty much sorted out the fit. I did have to nip in the sides from the bust down to the hip on the side seams but this was super easy because I pinned, sewed and voila it fit. The only thing that didn't work so well was the neckline. Because I changed the seam allowance I made the neckline much wider than intended. This literally only just covers my bra straps. I couldn't turn it under to finish the edges so I left it raw. And when I say I left it raw I mean I left the hem and the sleeves raw too. Because solidarity.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WtGwuzt05IQ/VY_YK2HAhVI/AAAAAAAADDM/vVrrMd5RRaI/s1600/IMG_8947.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WtGwuzt05IQ/VY_YK2HAhVI/AAAAAAAADDM/vVrrMd5RRaI/s640/IMG_8947.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have to say that this version is my absolute favourite of the three versions I've made. I love the others too and they all get a LOT of wear especially since I discovered fleece lined tights (life changing!) but this one is the most me of the lot. The drape of this ponte is gorgeous and the whole thing feels so feminine while also being oh so very warm. Why have I not made millions of winter dresses before?? The thing that keeps me coming back to this pattern can be seen really well from this angle below.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I made a&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/black-knit-winter-dress.html">black knit winter dress</a>&nbsp;last year and love it to death. Seriously it's embarrassing the sheer amount of times I've worn that dress now. However it just hugs you around the bodice and that's about it. Whereas have a look at this beauty below. Those princess seams and that lovely arc of a seam is giving my bust, ribcage and waist great definition. It's more figure hugging and flattering than any knit dress I've made before. I really feel like it's winter knit dress mach two. It's taken flattering knit dress to another level.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RH_Rtlxoo14/VY_ZG7n6tDI/AAAAAAAADDc/YdS1wi_wgW8/s1600/IMG_8956.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="530" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RH_Rtlxoo14/VY_ZG7n6tDI/AAAAAAAADDc/YdS1wi_wgW8/s640/IMG_8956.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh listen to me go on!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d-lTHFeLVyY/VY_YqcdTgRI/AAAAAAAADDU/ueUClFYlmCU/s1600/IMG_8948.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d-lTHFeLVyY/VY_YqcdTgRI/AAAAAAAADDU/ueUClFYlmCU/s640/IMG_8948.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>So of course I couldn't stop there when I was onto such a winner. Third time around I made this floral number from some scuba fabric. Scuba. Did not think I would ever write that. What you see here is a floral wetsuit. Even though most people know I sew my own clothes this dress seems to impress them more than anything I've made. Maybe the fabric looks a lot more RTW than the stuff I usually choose?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b9r3MJfjE4U/VY_Zry25xmI/AAAAAAAADDk/cEf1k8HsBN0/s1600/IMG_8957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b9r3MJfjE4U/VY_Zry25xmI/AAAAAAAADDk/cEf1k8HsBN0/s640/IMG_8957.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The only change I made to this version was to add a 1.5cm sliver at the neckline of the front and back pieces to make sure the neckline wasn't so wide as the other one. Apart from that it's the exact same. I also didn't hem this one. Because solidarity.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bWmLLeFsMkc/VY_aHy8HdbI/AAAAAAAADDs/-zDhVNpAxOk/s1600/IMG_8960.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="494" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bWmLLeFsMkc/VY_aHy8HdbI/AAAAAAAADDs/-zDhVNpAxOk/s640/IMG_8960.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>As I've mentioned I really love this pattern and I know I'm not done with it yet. I plan to make another summer dress from it later in the year and then maybe I'll decide if 4 versions of the same pattern might just be enough to keep me happy forever.<br /><br />Never say never though.http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/06/lekala-4345-instant-tnt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-8936540743896621644Sat, 27 Jun 2015 10:39:00 +00002015-06-28T16:42:10.278+10:00Shoemaking - An update on what I've learnt so far<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_1YPGEUceg/VY5fJGL8DEI/AAAAAAAAC_8/7dVnlVfefVM/s1600/IMG_8868.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_1YPGEUceg/VY5fJGL8DEI/AAAAAAAAC_8/7dVnlVfefVM/s640/IMG_8868.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Firstly HI!<br /><br />It's been nearly 6 months since we've spoken on this platform. I'm all about the <a href="https://instagram.com/scaredstitchless/">instaspam</a> but I lost my enthusiasm to blog at the start of the year. Also my tripod broke at the end of last year so there was that. Good news though, I bought a new tripod and also I finally feel like blogging All Of The Things.<br /><br />I had a week off recently so I geared up for making some more shoes and I have a bunch of things to tell you about what I've learnt is working and what most definitely isn't.<br /><br />So far I've blogged about a lot of things to do with shoemaking. I talked about&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-figuring-out-how-to-start.html">figuring out how to start</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-how-i-customised-my-foot.html">how I customised my lasts</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-making-pattern-to-fit-my.html">how I made a pattern to fit my customised shoe lasts</a>. Then I got straight into it and made a&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-my-first-pair-of-ballet.html">first pair of ballet flats from a kit</a>, before sharing&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/shoemaking-verdict-on-first-pair-of.html">the verdict on my first pair of ballet flats</a>. I then worked through some things I learnt in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marywalesloomis.com/index.php?page=order">the book</a>&nbsp;and shared my thoughts on&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/shoemaking-my-second-pair-of-ballet.html">my second pair of ballet flats</a>.<br /><br />I did attempt to make another pair in early January that never made it to the blog and look like this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9H3bStwqIA/VY5jPxpkvjI/AAAAAAAADAI/inODRqYUWN0/s1600/IMG_7819.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9H3bStwqIA/VY5jPxpkvjI/AAAAAAAADAI/inODRqYUWN0/s640/IMG_7819.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />So let's start with the fun part. I discovered flipagram for instagram and took a bunch of photos throughout the shoemaking process so you'd have a better idea of what I'm doing to put everything together. Remember that this is very much a hybrid process where I've mashed up some things I like from using the kit and some things from using the book.<br /><br />This first one includes cutting out all of the parts, gluing together the insole parts and sewing together the layers.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-9a68a0869c261118" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D9a68a0869c261118%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D795C232EC9DD87DEA191744541059918031ADDE5.B306C1B5457E221C8027C43BA40F43FB46C4CB74%26key%3Dck2&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D9a68a0869c261118%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dh16kw0UDZiOjWf-aa7sZ5LyZH5w&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D9a68a0869c261118%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D795C232EC9DD87DEA191744541059918031ADDE5.B306C1B5457E221C8027C43BA40F43FB46C4CB74%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D9a68a0869c261118%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dh16kw0UDZiOjWf-aa7sZ5LyZH5w&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object></div><br />This second one shows the insole being taped to the last, the "shoe" being pulled around the last and the lining glued down before shaping the buckram over the toe with fabric stiffener.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-ec15c363f6116e7f" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dec15c363f6116e7f%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D9B95EEF21526E0C8DCEAA6CE93307F891BF97BE3.8EEEAB482F0072F1A13E849263EB614B03187605%26key%3Dck2&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dec15c363f6116e7f%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DDNbg4bry486GOVpJemvLdTNnX-0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dec15c363f6116e7f%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D9B95EEF21526E0C8DCEAA6CE93307F891BF97BE3.8EEEAB482F0072F1A13E849263EB614B03187605%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dec15c363f6116e7f%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DDNbg4bry486GOVpJemvLdTNnX-0&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object></div><br /><br />This third one shows all the layers being glued down, my attempt to fill in the gap with felt and then the sole being stuck on.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-2afd0b673214c342" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D2afd0b673214c342%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D9250B08D35E371B805792783BC6916F4CC5671A8.5C4E89E5436E369972D90029390C09225688FE6E%26key%3Dck2&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2afd0b673214c342%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DuAzMK0ECnETCa1kYm0kDx_Bb3qY&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=https://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D2afd0b673214c342%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26requiressl%3Dyes%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsecure_transport%3Dyes%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1483479365%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl%26signature%3D9250B08D35E371B805792783BC6916F4CC5671A8.5C4E89E5436E369972D90029390C09225688FE6E%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2afd0b673214c342%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DuAzMK0ECnETCa1kYm0kDx_Bb3qY&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object></div><br />What you'll notice from this process is that I managed, on 4 different occasions, to make something that looks like a shoe. What you can't imagine from your computer screen is that I've made something that feels like a slipper. Now, slippers are great. I love slippers. I'm wearing some right now. But they are not, nor will they ever be, something I wear outside of the house. Even if they look like shoes.<br /><br />So I guess where I'm up to at the moment is trying to bridge the gap between them looking like shoes and actually <i>feeling</i>&nbsp;like shoes.<br /><br />The hardest part of this (self inflicted) process is figuring out whether the fault lies with the materials, the pattern, the process or a bit of everything. Thankfully the 6 month break I had from shoe making between January and now has let a lot of things marinate around in my little noggin.<br /><h3><b><br /></b></h3><h3><b>The Materials</b></h3><b><br /></b><b>Crinoline </b>- is 100% useless in creating shoes. It doesn't matter how much you use or how much fabric stiffener you slather on it, it will never be sturdy and strong enough to make something feel like a shoe.<br /><br /><b>Canvas</b> - is helpful if you're making a fabric shoe and you want a sturdier interlining. However it still makes the shoes feel like a slipper.<br /><br /><b>Buckram</b> - is the shit. It's pure shoe making magic. I used it in my 2 most recent attempts at shoes and it makes <i>a world of difference</i> to how the shoe feels. On the blue/green fabric shoe I showed a picture of above I used buckram throughout the shoe which I wet down to mould it over the last. I used fabric stiffener on the toe and I made a dedicated counter from 3 layers of buckram with fabric stiffener slathered over them. This, however, wasn't enough. The most recent shoe I made from bright blue pleather had 1 layer of buckram right round the shoe and a second layer just over the toe. I slathered every bit of buckram with the fabric stiffener and it made a huge difference. The toe area of this most recent shoe <i>actually feels like a shoe</i> - huzzah! Whereas the rest of it feels like a slipper. Next time I will have 2 layers of buckram coated in fabric stiffener right round the shoe and 1 extra layer at the heel to act as a counter and I'm pretty sure they're going to feel like shoes. Shoes that feel like shoes? Shut. up.<br /><br /><b>Rubber Sole Sheeting</b><br />The first 3 pairs of shoes I made had leather soles. They weren't sturdy enough, they didn't feel right and they're much too porous to be worn around very long. I'd researched rubber sole sheeting but hadn't managed to find an Australian supplier. Scrap that. I hadn't managed to find an Australian Supplier who had a website that I could easily order from. I did, however, find a company in Sydney with a <a href="http://www.shoeproducts.com.au/">website</a> that had a catalogue. I called through to ask for the guy's opinion on rubber soling but he told me he had 200 types and he couldn't possibly know what I was after so I would have to come in. I took the opportunity of having a week of to have an excursion from the Blue Mountains to Banksmeadow. It was rainy and cold and boy was it a long way but totally worth it. I walked the last little bit in very light rain and rocked up to a factory in the middle of an industrial estate wearing a pair of ballet flats so I could take one off and point at the rubber soling should everything go horribly wrong. Turns out the owner and his team were awesome and let me walk through and feel the sheeting for myself and talk me through my options. He also learnt that I had walked in the rain which he found unacceptable so after paying for my sheeting he made me sit in a chair while we got to know each other. He told me I must be proud to be making shoes myself. I <i>must</i> be. In the thirty years he's run the business he's never had someone walk in off the street asking for soling because they were making shoes for a hobby. Fifteen minutes later he was driving me to the nearest Westfield which had frequent buses, all the while explaining the incredible importance of Elvis Presley's lyrics. And that, dear readers, is how I came to buy rubber sole sheeting.<br /><br />So the important bit to tell you is that it's Topy sheeting which is about 3mm thick and comes in a sheet that I would say is about 100cmx60cm. They were $50 each and I can get a hell of a lot of shoes out of this. This is going to take my shoemaking to the next level. Like, hopefully a wearable level.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RRKL7ExARoc/VY5udUhhUwI/AAAAAAAADAY/lpOu-LdLGZc/s1600/IMG_8765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RRKL7ExARoc/VY5udUhhUwI/AAAAAAAADAY/lpOu-LdLGZc/s640/IMG_8765.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b>Fabric vs Leather/Pleather</b><br /><b><br /></b>The fact that I've been flitting back and forth between the two hasn't really been helping. I know that Leather/pleather doesn't need as much structure as does fabric but I'm still working out the perfect ingredients for both types of shoe. More to learn.<br /><h3><b><br /></b></h3><h3><b>The Pattern</b></h3><br />I had a lot of fun playing around with my lasts and creating a shape that was much more like my foot in the hope that I could make shoes that fit my wide feet. This required making a new pattern which I feel was pretty successful. Not perfect whatsoever but better for my feet than a standard pattern. However I'm finding that having this pattern I made for myself is making this all a little murkier and harder to assess whether it's the materials, pattern or process. So I've decided to do away with what I've created and go back to basics. More on that later.<br /><br />I've also found that even when I've managed to make the shoes a little stiffer and sturdier they're still way too loose on the sides of my feet. I think this might come back to my pattern. I also think it might have something to do with a pattern that has the seam down the arch of the foot rather than down the heel of the foot. I'd like to experiment with making a pattern that has a seam down the heel. That way I can shape the seam more to hug my heel and therefore draw in the sides of the shoe. Without having much idea what I'm doing I feel like the line around the top of the shoe needs to be every so slightly shorter than it should be. This way when I put my foot in my heel and toe are drawing the shoe to opposite ends which will pull the sides a bit tighter. Minutely so but perhaps enough to create a bit of tension so the shoe hugs my foot rather than casually sitting up against it.<br /><h3><b><br /></b></h3><h3><b>The Process</b></h3><br />I've now learnt and applied two different methods of shoe making and then mashed them together. However this is not the only way to know how to make shoes. It only very recently occurred to me that most of the time I've been sewing I've been referring to the internet. While I couldn't find a lot on shoemaking when I first started I've since discovered a ton of great videos on youtube that give a lot of insight into how to make shoes in a big fancy factory and how to make them in your home. I've been delving through youtube and watching everything I can to absorb whatever people are freely sharing on the internet. I've also found a place that does shoe making classes online that I might sign up for if I find their method to be helpful. Membership lasts for 2-3 months though so I'd have to make sure I had a period of time to dedicate to all things shoes and not get distracted by sewing or fabric. mmmm fabric.<br /><br /><br /><h3></h3><h3>Learning from the Internet&nbsp;</h3><br />If you're interested in following along with making shoes or just want to see some great videos then head over to my new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO4ET_Wc3kPGp5wyYYILjag/playlists">youtube account</a>. So far I've watched just about every video from Sveta Kletina as her videos are super helpful. She's the one that runs the online sewing school over at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com/">shoemaking courses online</a>. I've started following her process just today and I plan to make a bunch of patterns and muslin them to test things out before attempting any more shoes. This means pulling the modelling clay off my lasts and working from a standard size 39 to get used to pattern making before making any wide footed mods.<br /><br />I've found the London College of Fashion videos really helpful as well but they're very geared towards people in fancy shoe making factories whereas Sveta is very geared towards someone like me at home.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyIK-T8e_U/VY54WeUwd4I/AAAAAAAADAo/toyJElc6-KE/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-27%2Bat%2B8.16.18%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyIK-T8e_U/VY54WeUwd4I/AAAAAAAADAo/toyJElc6-KE/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-27%2Bat%2B8.16.18%2Bpm.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />All in all I'm having <i>a lot of fun</i> learning to make shoes. The excitement in my sewing room is palpable whenever I'm working on something that vaguely looks like a shoe. I know you might think I'm mad floundering around like this but it's been <i>so fun. </i>I know I have a lot to learn and that <i>excites</i> me. So stick around as I'm sure there'll be many more posts just like this as I narrow down the perfect way to make a shoe at home yourself.http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/06/shoemaking-update-on-what-ive-learnt-so.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-5964664203446133155Sun, 04 Jan 2015 04:56:00 +00002015-01-04T16:08:11.153+11:00Shoemaking: My second pair of ballet flats, made from following a book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psV0RwIhN20/VKjBTn2D9gI/AAAAAAAAC9Q/i4MrUZzt70M/s1600/IMG_7501.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psV0RwIhN20/VKjBTn2D9gI/AAAAAAAAC9Q/i4MrUZzt70M/s1600/IMG_7501.JPG" height="450" width="640" /></a></div><br />I made shoes that FIT! I discussed in my very <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-figuring-out-how-to-start.html">first post</a> that I was going to use the kit to the letter for my first pair of shoes and the book to the letter for the second pair. As it happens my second pair turned out to be a bit of a hybrid between the two options which I'll explain further on. These shoes are not perfect and there are a bunch of things I'll change when I make my third pair but they are definitely wearable!<br /><br />Last time <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-my-first-pair-of-ballet.html">I made a pair of shoes</a> I was working from a kit so this time I've made a handy dandy table for you so you know what I used.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GHQq0janVVg/VKioEf__CuI/AAAAAAAAC84/JolUCSRaywk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-04%2Bat%2B1.39.46%2Bpm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GHQq0janVVg/VKioEf__CuI/AAAAAAAAC84/JolUCSRaywk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-04%2Bat%2B1.39.46%2Bpm.png" height="640" width="624" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-co0mY-lkdpk/VKjBpBTf-QI/AAAAAAAAC9Y/CE6mQFqFldo/s1600/IMG_7425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-co0mY-lkdpk/VKjBpBTf-QI/AAAAAAAAC9Y/CE6mQFqFldo/s1600/IMG_7425.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><b><br /></b><b><br /></b><b>Following the book</b><br /><b><br /></b>I loved following <a href="https://www.marywalesloomis.com/index.php?page=order">this book</a> so much. You can tell it's written by someone who has made a lot of pairs of shoes and has ironed out all the kinks in their steps and procedures. She provides a template for a shoe pattern or you can cut open a shoe of your own to make one. Since I had already based my <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-making-pattern-to-fit-my.html">customised pattern</a>&nbsp;on the free template from <a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/">icanmakeshoes.com</a>&nbsp;I stuck with that. It did mean I varied a couple of things which I'll talk about below.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r_NMiL3_Tmo/VKjB7i4soKI/AAAAAAAAC9g/Y_GTTIoQgwI/s1600/IMG_7434.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r_NMiL3_Tmo/VKjB7i4soKI/AAAAAAAAC9g/Y_GTTIoQgwI/s1600/IMG_7434.JPG" height="596" width="640" /></a></div><br />It starts by having you make slightly graded patterns so that each layer in the shoe is stepped off from the next to reduce bulk at the seams. Once you sew it all together you understitch everything but the outer fabric. I trimmed and pressed my seams to reduce any further bulk and then topstitched and pressed again. Unfortunately, because I was changing her suggested process, I hadn't thought through what order to do this all in so I topstitched before I sewed the side seam. It means the seam isn't lying flat which is unfortunate but it's not too noticeable.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9fUcvdlGV_A/VKjCQjRoWiI/AAAAAAAAC9o/ieW1Eho960Q/s1600/IMG_7463.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9fUcvdlGV_A/VKjCQjRoWiI/AAAAAAAAC9o/ieW1Eho960Q/s1600/IMG_7463.JPG" height="612" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />I do love the way the side seam is sewn though. It took me a long time to pin this meticulously and I still didn't get it right. Millimetres really matter in shoemaking. I suggest you spend some time on this seam (with a seam ripper handy) to get it right.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LCiWmvgC2uo/VKjCnoPFIBI/AAAAAAAAC9w/3i1T7EO-nqA/s1600/IMG_7467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LCiWmvgC2uo/VKjCnoPFIBI/AAAAAAAAC9w/3i1T7EO-nqA/s1600/IMG_7467.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br />Once all the sewing is over you end up with these weird looking things. This means it's time for some shaping which, when you make them this way, only involves fabric stiffener.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5UikYz2kgs/VKjC66kktLI/AAAAAAAAC98/7c38aZ5xAKg/s1600/IMG_7479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5UikYz2kgs/VKjC66kktLI/AAAAAAAAC98/7c38aZ5xAKg/s1600/IMG_7479.JPG" height="638" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The crinoline and interlining over the toe get fabric stiffener rubbed in to them to give the rounded toe more shape and rigidity. She includes instructions in the book for making your own counters (the part that gives the heel shape). I really wanted to try this as an alternative to having to source them and since it's only layers of crinoline with fabric stiffener rubbed in I was curious to see how well it would work out.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq-09qJFTEw/VKjDOWIcVfI/AAAAAAAAC-A/20lChsnUV3w/s1600/IMG_7490.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq-09qJFTEw/VKjDOWIcVfI/AAAAAAAAC-A/20lChsnUV3w/s1600/IMG_7490.JPG" height="518" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'm really pleased with the counters. They were messy and fiddly and time consuming to make but they really work. They have the right amount of rigidity with just enough flexibility for your heel to move as you walk in them. They probably took me about 2-2.5 hours to make out of about a 12 hour shoe making process so comparatively they're the biggest and longest step in making the shoes but I really think it's worth it. Also I should mention I drastically reduced the amount of time it should have taken to make these by using my hairdryer to dry each layer as I was working on them. If you had to wait for them to air dry properly between layers you would have to do them over a couple of days which wouldn't be worth it. So have your hairdryer handy!<br /><br /><b>Not following the book</b><br /><br />Because I used my own pattern and not the kind of pattern suggested in the book it had some flow on effects for making my shoes and the order I had to do it in. Firstly she is making a pointed toe shoe and I'm making a rounded toe shoe. Her process for shaping the shoe is to wrap the fabric around the last and handsew giant zigzags of thread across the bottom to pull the sides of the fabric really tightly together. I couldn't do this because there was no way for me to work the fabric around the rounded toe. She also does all this, pops the fabric off the last, attaches the insole, snips off the excess fabric around her pointed toe and glues the sole on. I didn't do that either. I glued it all together just like I did for the first pair I made.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0SRVlpQWGbU/VKjDpunYQ2I/AAAAAAAAC-I/3zVLAFLCUZs/s1600/IMG_7500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0SRVlpQWGbU/VKjDpunYQ2I/AAAAAAAAC-I/3zVLAFLCUZs/s1600/IMG_7500.JPG" height="632" width="640" /></a></div><br />One thing I tried to follow from her book was the insertion of the counter. She has you put the counter over the last between the lining and the interlining. As I said before she then goes about hand sewing these layers tight around the last. I decided to glue my pieces together so I could still get a nice rounded toe shape so I wasn't sure how to deal with this counter. I ended up inserting it where she suggested but then gluing every other layer around it onto the bottom of the insole as I did with my last pair of shoes. With each layer I was pulling, gluing it down, turning my last over to check the positioning and pressing it into place as the glue dried. What I didn't know until right at the end when I popped the shoe off the last was that the lining was really loose and hadn't been pulled into shape very much because I was trying to keep the counter in place. It's only a slight change of steps but next time I will most definitely pull my lining into place over the last, glue it down, check it meticulously and press it into place as the glue dries before I even touch the counter. This will eliminate this problem altogether.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YRj1Pu_KeNc/VKjD9-WmlAI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/SAXPTFqKsMg/s1600/IMG_7514.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YRj1Pu_KeNc/VKjD9-WmlAI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/SAXPTFqKsMg/s1600/IMG_7514.JPG" height="476" width="640" /></a></div><br />The dart was tricky when trying to follow this process. There are a lot of layers and I was hesitant to sew the dart in the lining and sew the dart in all of the other layers together. I remembered from using the kit that while it helped shape the heel it ended up getting cut off anyway. I made the decision to cut the dart out literally. I cut that triangle out and then just glued each layer down separately and all was fine. I'm really glad I did it this way because it's not actually necessary to have that dart.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsdVtPdE6Lk/VKjEzFI3-II/AAAAAAAAC-g/4d0pI9TFmh4/s1600/IMG_7505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsdVtPdE6Lk/VKjEzFI3-II/AAAAAAAAC-g/4d0pI9TFmh4/s1600/IMG_7505.JPG" height="616" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>What I would change for next time</b><br />&nbsp;As I said before these shoes are definitely wearable but they do feel a little soft and fragile so I'll be wearing them with care. Like on non-rainy days.<br /><br /><b>The Toe</b><br />The fabric stiffener on the toe area was good but it's not enough. The toe doesn't feel as firm as it should. I think I'll add a second layer of crinoline for the toe area and use fabric stiffener on them separately, much like with making the counter. It wouldn't need much more than this for a bit of rigidity and shape.<br /><br /><b>The sides of the shoe</b><br />The side of the shoe have no shaping whatsoever. It's just a couple of layers of fabric pulled tight around the last and, in the end, your foot. This is too flimsy, soft and prone to crinkle. I think I'll use fabric stiffener on one layer all the way around the shoe next time so the fabric holds it's shape on the sides.<br /><br /><b>The insole</b><br />When I used the kit I hated how inflexible the texon board was to walk on. This book suggests you use really sturdy and thick cardboard. I used the thickest cardboard I had onhand from a lightly corrugated box but it's just a bit too flexible. I'd like to find a heavyweight, flat cardboard to use next time. I may even glue a couple of layers together until it feels strong enough.<br /><br />All in all they're a bit too lightweight and flimsy so I feel a little protective of them. I'll still wear them out and I'm contemplating keeping a little journal on the shoes I make so I can monitor how many hours I wear them, how the sole wears, how the fabric wears and how long I get out of them so I can narrow down the best process and materials over time.<br /><br /><b>What I love about these shoes</b><br /><br />The pattern I made worked a treat! As you can see below my wide feet now actually fit in shoes. I think I might shave a half a centimetre off the sides of my pattern so it's not as high there but I'm stoked that these are the best fit I've ever had on my feet.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A51uhl5ABiE/VKjEZS-DjaI/AAAAAAAAC-Y/Nfwz_ssuJtw/s1600/IMG_7566.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A51uhl5ABiE/VKjEZS-DjaI/AAAAAAAAC-Y/Nfwz_ssuJtw/s1600/IMG_7566.JPG" height="514" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />I nailed the insole shape. It's perfect.<br /><br />I made SHOES that FIT!!<br /><br /><br />As you can tell from these posts I'm on a very steep learning curve. I'm finding out what works best for me and the kind of shoes I want to make. I will eventually put a detailed tutorial up on my favourite process incorporating all the tips I've learnt the hard way so that you can follow along if you want to get into shoemaking. Since I'm still figuring that out you'll have to just follow along my ramblings for now.<br /><br />I haven't forgotten about making some sandals and I haven't forgotten about sewing either!http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/01/shoemaking-my-second-pair-of-ballet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-6678690631225060854Thu, 01 Jan 2015 01:02:00 +00002015-01-01T12:02:14.039+11:00Shoemaking: The verdict on the first pair of ballet flats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sOhZ90B4JDk/VKSXODI52sI/AAAAAAAAC7o/kqtNXikv8iQ/s1600/IMG_7393.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sOhZ90B4JDk/VKSXODI52sI/AAAAAAAAC7o/kqtNXikv8iQ/s1600/IMG_7393.JPG" height="450" width="640" /></a></div><br />If you've been following along since the beginning you would have seen me making a plan on&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-figuring-out-how-to-start.html">how to start</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-how-i-customised-my-foot.html">customising my shoe last</a>, making&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-making-pattern-to-fit-my.html">a pattern</a>&nbsp;to fit my customised shoe lasts and finally a post full of pictures of&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-my-first-pair-of-ballet.html">my first ballet flats</a>. It's already been quite a learning curve and it's really exciting to be learning so much and acquiring a new skill!<br /><br />I started this pair of shoes Monday night and I was finished them by Tuesday night. I estimate that I spent around 12 hours making them which makes them sound super quick compared to some of the things I've sewn! Don't be fooled though, shoemaking is <i>hard</i> work!<br /><br />Seeing as I have so much to say let's talk through the positives, followed by the negatives and then round it up with my plan for my second pair now that I'm learning a bit about my preferences in shoe making.<br /><b><br /></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0MMuCcDyraU/VKSXjXYywOI/AAAAAAAAC7w/OZGMTdfIHsw/s1600/IMG_7410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0MMuCcDyraU/VKSXjXYywOI/AAAAAAAAC7w/OZGMTdfIHsw/s1600/IMG_7410.JPG" height="318" width="640" /></a></div><b><br /></b><h3><b>The Good</b></h3><b>The Kit</b><br />The kit from <a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/">icanmakeshoes.com</a>&nbsp;is fantastic. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's a very clear, easy, step-by-step venture into making a great looking pair of ballet flats. The website has two different patterns for ballet flats. One with the rounded toe like I used called the classic ballet pump and another called the high front ballet pump, for obvious reasons. The booklet that shows you through every step is basically a sew along all put together in one continuous book. It has big, bright, easy to follow photographs and basic step by step instructions with a few hints and pointers thrown in so you feel like you know what you're doing. Even though it's really easy to follow I recommend reading through the book a number of times before starting. Get out all your included pieces and get familiar with the materials, what you're meant to do with them and in what order.<br /><br /><b>Using Leather</b><br />This kit is well thought through in that it asks you to make shoes out of leather. First of all if you're going to go to the effort of making your own shoes and spending a bunch of money on a kit, it's a great idea to make your shoes special by making them out of leather.<br /><br />Secondly it's a brilliant choice for the method they teach you. You may have noticed from the photos that the outer fabric is turned over 5mm and glued down to itself to create a smooth line around the foot. The lining however, extends that 5mm out until right at the end of making the shoe where you drag a blade around the line at an angle and cut it clean off. This would not be achievable without leather (or suede) and would require stitching and under stitching. Not having to sew much makes this kit all the more accessible for anyone to pick it up and make a great pair of shoes without a lot of technical knowhow.<br /><br /><b>The final product</b><br />If you were to follow this kit to the letter using standard lasts and the templates on the website you would absolutely end up with beautiful looking, wearable shoes. Unfortunately I'm a bit ambitious so of course I had to go and change the shape of my last and of course I had to go and make a whole new pattern and of course I had to change the shape of the insole. You are probably not me. Which means you're going to make great shoes if you use this kit.<br /><br /><b>Where I went right</b><br />The modelling clay I masking taped to my lasts worked a treat. I was not even thinking about whether it was squishing in all the right or wrong ways during the making of the shoes. The fact that I didn't think about it until I pulled the last out of the shoe (out of sight out of mind) means it was all fine and dandy. Fabulous.<br /><br />My new pattern turned out great! I made a muslin out of faux leather so it would have a similar hand to the leather. I basically lined up my marking for the dart over the centre of the heel and cut a dart with the same width of the pattern, sewed it up and it worked fine. Also the dart is a funny thing. It helps shape the fabric around the heel so that when you pull on the fabric to glue it to the insole it makes the whole thing easier. It's worth it just for that. However as soon as the fabric touched the insole I realised I'd have to cut the entire dart away anyway (along with tons of fabric that gets pleated and then cut out.) So I didn't need to fuss so much about the positioning or the grain line of the fabric or any of that nonsense. The fabric tells you what it wants to do and you just trust that.<br /><br /><h3>The Bad</h3>During the making of these shoes I questioned some of the things included in the kit and the process. Now I'm sure this has all been chosen for a reason and I'm sure the kits are mostly designed for students actually attending classes so they get all the added value of having a teacher there to talk them through at difficult moments so my opinion could be a little skewed seeing as I'm on the other side of the world locked in my sewing room staring down a kit. But this blog is about my opinion so I'm going to give it to you anyway.<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>The (lack of) sewing</b></div><div>I don't love that the outer fabric and the lining aren't stitched together. I knew this before I made the kit and I'm pretty sure this would only bother someone who sews (meaning everybody who reads this blog.) The consolation here is that since the shoe is made of leather you don't really have to but I'm pretty sure the next time I make shoes from leather I'm going to stitch and under stitch my pieces together. Most of this opinion is based on this side seam you see below - so bulky! Imagine if you had sewn these pieces together, cut away the excess to reduce bulk on the inside and flattened the seams properly before making the rest of the shoe? Not to mention the bulk wouldn't be visible on the outside of the shoe it would only be thicker looking from the outside. This would be better for me. It would not be better for anyone who doesn't sew because that would make the process more difficult and the kit much harder to work out for a non-sewing beginner but hey, it's how I feel.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UeJUpmmg_7k/VKSX-gw_z_I/AAAAAAAAC74/xuyAwPGmdjA/s1600/IMG_7412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UeJUpmmg_7k/VKSX-gw_z_I/AAAAAAAAC74/xuyAwPGmdjA/s1600/IMG_7412.JPG" height="602" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>So while we're already here let's talk about that side seam. You're meant to fold over 5mm on either end of your pattern piece and glue it to itself. Then you overlap these pieces and top stitch them down. So what you have here is 4 layers of leather to sew through which is already difficult but then because you're top stitching you kind of want your stitches to look good because it's the only visible seam. Trust me when I say my stitches don't look good on this seam. I hand cranked this entire seam and it was still wonky and uneven. Maybe this would be better done in a class so the teacher can help?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Reducing Bulk</b></div><div>One thing the kit didn't suggest to do was reduce bulk. I'm such a huge fan of pressing during sewing now that I couldn't let that go. I got out my hammer and bashed the leather until it laid as flat as possible. Perhaps they have you do this in the class but it wasn't mentioned in the book.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm back on the side seam again. Have a look at that photo again and tell me it doesn't make you cringe seeing that sole have to curve around all that bulk. Luckily you can't feel any of this as you walk but I feel like there's a better way.</div><div><br /></div><b>The Insole</b><br />The provided texone board feels really stiff compared to every shoe I've owned. Potentially this is because I only ever buy cheap shoes. Whatever the case I'll be hunting down a material that is a tiny bit more flexible than this for my insoles.<br /><br /><b>Where I went wrong</b><br />This bit's painful to talk about peeps. I mucked up the insole and it affected everything about the shoe. I can't believe I managed to reshape a last, create a freaking pattern with no pattern making knowledge and then managed to stuff up the entire shoe just because of the insole. I'm kicking myself. I really am. (Kicking myself - ha! Because of shoes - ha! <i>geddit?)</i><br /><br />So let's talk about the insole. Because you're not me you would be using a standard insole template which they kindly provide on the website. I however made up my own. My theory was sound. My practise was not. Along the way of doing all my adjustments you'll remember I traced around my foot with a pencil, then I went around this line in sharpie so it would be easier to see and use. Then I stuck it to the bottom of my last and filled out my last with modelling clay. I didn't want to mess with the toe because I liked the shape of it so I left that alone. I traced the new shape with pencil so I would have a new "me" shaped insole. I covered the pencil line in sharpie line laid it over the texone board and traced around that sharpie line. Finally I covered the whole thing in leather.<br /><br />You may see where I'm going with this. That pencil line (which I drew straight down and not on a slight angle to compensate for the width of the pencil) would have already been skewed very minutely. Then I add a thicker line from the sharpie which added to the width minutely. Then I cut around it (again straight down and not on a slight angle) which added width minutely. Then I covered it in leather which added width minutely. All of this only really adds up to about 5-6mm but let me tell you it's the difference between well fitting shoes and clown feet. Seriously.<br /><br />I know all this because I left the toe shape the same as the last and there's still 5-6mm too much insole going on around the toes. Cringe.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VpH3hEp2Fy0/VKSZJiaV-KI/AAAAAAAAC8I/D-HUU0VsZos/s1600/IMG_7414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VpH3hEp2Fy0/VKSZJiaV-KI/AAAAAAAAC8I/D-HUU0VsZos/s1600/IMG_7414.JPG" height="352" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notice first how the extra 5mm all around makes the shoe huge. <br />Then notice that my pattern got a lot more of my foot in my shoe.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />And so here's where things get honest. The shoes actually look horrible on my feet and I'm not going to wear them. They are the most expensive pair of shoes I now own and I can't wear them. To be fair though I think you learn more rapidly with shoemaking as there is so little fitting to worry about so I'm equating this one shoe with like 1-2 years of my sewing curve (remember the beginning where <i>nothing ever fitted</i>?) and somehow the amount of fails and fabric I had to throw out/donate would make these shoes pale in comparison. So there's that.<br /><br /><b>The Cost</b><br />Looking back on my original post on materials I work out the cost of the kit, booklet and shipping to be about $120 Australian. I used half a leather hide I bought from The Fabric Store which is around $40. This means all up these shoes cost around $160. This would totally be worth it if they fit.<br /><br /><b>Looking forward and making a plan</b><br />This always helps right? You rise from the ashes only by reflecting, setting new goals and going out and proving you are actually good at things even after you've failed? I do.<br /><br />I am going to research the shit out my insoles. I'm going to draw and redraw and muslin those things until I have the best damn insoles the world has ever seen. Yeah.<br /><br />I'm sticking to my original plan too in that I'll put all this kit stuff aside and follow along with <a href="https://www.marywalesloomis.com/index.php?page=order">the book</a>. I'm really, really looking forward to it because firstly it's way cheaper and secondly I get to sew and have a professional finish which is obviously going to make me feel better about my shoes and myself.<br /><br />Also I'm super keen to make sandals! They look incredibly easy. These shoes took 12 hours to make but I'm pretty sure you could make sandals in maybe around 2 hours or less? Also I'm pretty sure even with all leather materials plus clasps/snaps/thread etc, they're not going to cost more than about $25-$30. The good news for you is that you don't need shoe lasts to make sandals. All you need is your materials, your foot, good shoe glue and you're off and away! I hope that some of you may join me in making sandals once I get my materials sorted, make them and blog them.<br /><br />I'll be back to sewing for the next couple of weeks until I gather materials and get ready for my next pair of shoes. This process has only made me more excited and determined to succeed.http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2015/01/shoemaking-verdict-on-first-pair-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-2891405592817667301Wed, 31 Dec 2014 01:18:00 +00002014-12-31T12:58:33.444+11:00Shoemaking: My first pair of ballet flats made with a kit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palNVUiM5yw/VKNLZsN-PPI/AAAAAAAAC7I/yZmlB0aDn6w/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palNVUiM5yw/VKNLZsN-PPI/AAAAAAAAC7I/yZmlB0aDn6w/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG" height="508" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I MADE A PAIR OF SHOES!&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The good news is <a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/product/shoe-making-kit/">the kit </a>was awesome and I'm so proud of how the final shoes look. <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-making-pattern-to-fit-my.html">My pattern</a> was also a winner and covered up my wide feet nicely.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The bad news is I stuffed up the size of the insole which is one of the first steps and affects every single other step and hence the final fit of the shoes. I have too much to say about the whole process to just have one blog post on it so I've decided that this post will show you all the pretty pictures of the process.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Since I followed the kit to the letter I'm not providing any commentary on the below pictures. If you're curious about making you're own shoes I highly recommend buying it and you can use the below pictures for reference.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll write another post which will go into detail about the process. I'll explain what I did wrong with the insole, what I loved about the kit and what I might change next time I make ballet flats. For now enjoy the pictures!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_zV9n5da7PY/VKNJJTU_AmI/AAAAAAAAC5M/TMzYN3w1Mnc/s1600/IMG_7295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_zV9n5da7PY/VKNJJTU_AmI/AAAAAAAAC5M/TMzYN3w1Mnc/s1600/IMG_7295.JPG" height="520" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Smju8tbSxwU/VKNJQRfXpVI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/DfxxbRcHajc/s1600/IMG_7302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Smju8tbSxwU/VKNJQRfXpVI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/DfxxbRcHajc/s1600/IMG_7302.JPG" height="518" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AUAKQkZGH5A/VKNJWsSTQwI/AAAAAAAAC5Y/ZY8djZKcwjk/s1600/IMG_7310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AUAKQkZGH5A/VKNJWsSTQwI/AAAAAAAAC5Y/ZY8djZKcwjk/s1600/IMG_7310.JPG" height="538" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EIPRisVu_Dw/VKNJaLi8tUI/AAAAAAAAC5g/AeiqqwOKk_4/s1600/IMG_7323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EIPRisVu_Dw/VKNJaLi8tUI/AAAAAAAAC5g/AeiqqwOKk_4/s1600/IMG_7323.JPG" height="542" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m1HNFbQNZFE/VKNJ6BVCA6I/AAAAAAAAC5o/jzMrXFRHsoo/s1600/IMG_7327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m1HNFbQNZFE/VKNJ6BVCA6I/AAAAAAAAC5o/jzMrXFRHsoo/s1600/IMG_7327.JPG" height="590" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jMryMkPic50/VKNJ_QRV_LI/AAAAAAAAC54/YJCgRBNsJZk/s1600/IMG_7334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jMryMkPic50/VKNJ_QRV_LI/AAAAAAAAC54/YJCgRBNsJZk/s1600/IMG_7334.JPG" height="518" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wSEwjHllp7s/VKNJ-FdXteI/AAAAAAAAC5w/T_VS--cMf9Y/s1600/IMG_7340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wSEwjHllp7s/VKNJ-FdXteI/AAAAAAAAC5w/T_VS--cMf9Y/s1600/IMG_7340.JPG" height="500" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ACS0RHogfNc/VKNKE79DTqI/AAAAAAAAC6A/td6jduojw38/s1600/IMG_7355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ACS0RHogfNc/VKNKE79DTqI/AAAAAAAAC6A/td6jduojw38/s1600/IMG_7355.JPG" height="540" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i51e5E2eElA/VKNKhzJIELI/AAAAAAAAC6I/r6VgNOwYDgg/s1600/IMG_7358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i51e5E2eElA/VKNKhzJIELI/AAAAAAAAC6I/r6VgNOwYDgg/s1600/IMG_7358.JPG" height="588" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mXn1-B1gIvs/VKNKl00fqMI/AAAAAAAAC6Q/IMNk48W71qw/s1600/IMG_7360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mXn1-B1gIvs/VKNKl00fqMI/AAAAAAAAC6Q/IMNk48W71qw/s1600/IMG_7360.JPG" height="572" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YP4gXEEgrjY/VKNKm4UuUBI/AAAAAAAAC6Y/3W66OOMemoU/s1600/IMG_7366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YP4gXEEgrjY/VKNKm4UuUBI/AAAAAAAAC6Y/3W66OOMemoU/s1600/IMG_7366.JPG" height="528" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFPcgtqAWx0/VKNKt2EcQSI/AAAAAAAAC6g/FFpmYjLPBTs/s1600/IMG_7374.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFPcgtqAWx0/VKNKt2EcQSI/AAAAAAAAC6g/FFpmYjLPBTs/s1600/IMG_7374.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gl8UsgY3ASo/VKNLLMgH4pI/AAAAAAAAC6o/q4ITGj6jJ7E/s1600/IMG_7377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gl8UsgY3ASo/VKNLLMgH4pI/AAAAAAAAC6o/q4ITGj6jJ7E/s1600/IMG_7377.JPG" height="482" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JNa_vYwVbyc/VKNLM6ERb5I/AAAAAAAAC60/R-ZQXh-_r1Q/s1600/IMG_7379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JNa_vYwVbyc/VKNLM6ERb5I/AAAAAAAAC60/R-ZQXh-_r1Q/s1600/IMG_7379.JPG" height="552" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jCosHk54LDE/VKNLMurir7I/AAAAAAAAC6w/-bWUnPFQn2c/s1600/IMG_7382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jCosHk54LDE/VKNLMurir7I/AAAAAAAAC6w/-bWUnPFQn2c/s1600/IMG_7382.JPG" height="598" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sfRNyL5Py30/VKNLX-xz_2I/AAAAAAAAC7A/vXvPl3IwWHY/s1600/IMG_7384.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sfRNyL5Py30/VKNLX-xz_2I/AAAAAAAAC7A/vXvPl3IwWHY/s1600/IMG_7384.JPG" height="494" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palNVUiM5yw/VKNLZsN-PPI/AAAAAAAAC7I/yZmlB0aDn6w/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palNVUiM5yw/VKNLZsN-PPI/AAAAAAAAC7I/yZmlB0aDn6w/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG" height="508" width="640" /></a></div><br />http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/shoemaking-my-first-pair-of-ballet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-688658359919404007Mon, 29 Dec 2014 02:44:00 +00002014-12-29T13:44:25.635+11:00Shoemaking: Making a pattern to fit my customised shoe lasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cx-elkz3xJc/VKCumqqa0vI/AAAAAAAAC20/CDe02N79h3I/s1600/IMG_7236.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cx-elkz3xJc/VKCumqqa0vI/AAAAAAAAC20/CDe02N79h3I/s1600/IMG_7236.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />Last time we left off I had just <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-how-i-customised-my-foot.html" target="_blank">customised my shoe lasts</a> with some modelling clay and masking tape. This post is going to be all about making a pattern for the customised foot last. If you have average feet you're probably not going to need to do this but seeing as my feet are so wide I'm taking the plunge and attempting to make my own personal pattern before starting.<br /><br />I started this process by carefully sticky-taping all the masking tape down. I did this because my pattern is also going to be made of masking tape and I didn't want to pull the original masking tape off the last when pulling my pattern off. It worked really well so I recommend doing this.<br /><br />When wandering around the internet looking at all things shoemaking I kept seeing images of shoe patterns being made on shoe lasts with masking tape so I gave it a go. I read somewhere (will link it up later if I remember where...) that you should &nbsp;masking tape the entire foot last horizontally and then vertically so I did that.&nbsp;Also I read that the wrinkles on the masking tape should be made to lie as flat as you can get them so it doesn't affect the final pattern.&nbsp;I got a bit OCD about it so this part took me&nbsp;<i>forever</i>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-njyydbZ6R3k/VKCuqLM4fnI/AAAAAAAAC28/8YgsTD_XRYc/s1600/IMG_7239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-njyydbZ6R3k/VKCuqLM4fnI/AAAAAAAAC28/8YgsTD_XRYc/s1600/IMG_7239.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I wasn't entirely sure what to do once I got to this stage so I experimented by slipping my last into a shoe I bought recently and started tracing the line of the fabric. This really highlighted the poor fit that I have on pretty much all of my flat shoes. I wasn't sure how much to raise it by so again I experimented. This time I put the shoe on my foot and started measuring from the bottom of my foot to the spot where I'd like it to sit. I drew little dots on my foot all the way around until I was pretty happy with the curve. Then I took some masking tape and filled the gap between the edge of the fabric and my line of dots to see if the line I created look good in practise. It did! So then I had to do the same thing to the last. I carefully compared my measurements on my foot to the last and marked out dots all the way around the last until I had a smooth curve I was happy with. The only difficult part of this process is blending your newly created line with the existing toe curve to make it all look nice and seamless. Take your time with that bit, it's worth it.<br /><br />To give you an idea of what you're looking at the heel is 6.5 cm high and then it grades down to 5cm just below my ankle and grades down to 4cm all the way along my foot until it meets the curve at the front.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_ywwlEgCYo/VKCur_plcZI/AAAAAAAAC3E/sTik8kE3j0A/s1600/IMG_7244.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_ywwlEgCYo/VKCur_plcZI/AAAAAAAAC3E/sTik8kE3j0A/s1600/IMG_7244.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br />Then it was time to cut away the excess tape at the top of the last so I could turn my pattern from a 3D shape into a 2D one. The nerves, oh the nerves.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcxSKL_-HG0/VKCzyGMox5I/AAAAAAAAC3c/TEyr5OMsL0k/s1600/IMG_7248.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcxSKL_-HG0/VKCzyGMox5I/AAAAAAAAC3c/TEyr5OMsL0k/s1600/IMG_7248.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I should mention here that all of this was done by the help of the free downloadable ballet flat pattern on <a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/">icanmakeshoes.com</a>. My aim was to make my pattern resemble theirs so I could follow their tutorial in their book. I wrapped the pattern around the last so I could cut mine in exactly the same spot as their pattern. You can see my very high tech washi tape doing the job below.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VVgqkV0MxA/VKCzz5u66UI/AAAAAAAAC3k/BMaXHNGqUWk/s1600/IMG_7255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VVgqkV0MxA/VKCzz5u66UI/AAAAAAAAC3k/BMaXHNGqUWk/s1600/IMG_7255.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />Once I'd figured that bit out I marked a straight line down the side and peeled the pattern back off. Now I was ready to cut the pattern off the last.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6gKRULU7m24/VKCzptMDk7I/AAAAAAAAC3U/Ds9g1dVqhqo/s1600/IMG_7256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6gKRULU7m24/VKCzptMDk7I/AAAAAAAAC3U/Ds9g1dVqhqo/s1600/IMG_7256.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I cut around the bottom edge of the last and then cut straight down the line I had drawn on the side of the pattern before peeling the whole thing off the last. My sticky tape came with it which was great because &nbsp;I was left with my original modelling clay and masking tape, just how I started. This pattern is sitting inside out below because that's how it peeled off.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CkWPvlFMQi0/VKC1NfaZAEI/AAAAAAAAC38/azoeBO_F928/s1600/IMG_7259.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CkWPvlFMQi0/VKC1NfaZAEI/AAAAAAAAC38/azoeBO_F928/s1600/IMG_7259.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />Now for the tricky bit. Figuring out how to turn a 3D shape into a 2D one. The first thing I needed to do was figure out exactly where that dart needed to be located on my pattern so I could lay it flat. As you can see below I used washi tape to secure the pattern to the table and then more washi tape to secure the masking tape pattern to the paper pattern so I could match it as best I could. I'm still a little doubtful about that dart but we'll come to that later.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yxge39L0sRU/VKC1MovCHKI/AAAAAAAAC3w/v0qiPol5jeg/s1600/IMG_7262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yxge39L0sRU/VKC1MovCHKI/AAAAAAAAC3w/v0qiPol5jeg/s1600/IMG_7262.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />Next step was to find some sturdy cardboard to stick my pattern to. It's quite handy that it's made of masking tape because you can just flatten and stick it to the cardboard all at once. I flattened all the easy bits first while wondering what to do with the not-so-flat bits.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ei3EzsPZTLI/VKC1MmKPlDI/AAAAAAAAC30/_iziNnKz7yI/s1600/IMG_7264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ei3EzsPZTLI/VKC1MmKPlDI/AAAAAAAAC30/_iziNnKz7yI/s1600/IMG_7264.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />In the end I decided to clip the curve at the toe and flatten it that way.<br /><br />So let's talk about that dart. Once you flatten it it kind of meets up but won't stick down. Now I don't have any pattern making experience but something is really bugging me about it. If you look closely the horizontal masking tape lines are kind of acting as my grain line. They're all lying nice and flat and horizontal right up to the dart. The part after the dart (at the bottom) is now on an angle and it makes me wonder if maybe it should actually be hinged out so that the grain line is flat? I guess because I was following a pattern and the pattern had a straight line down I figured it was best just to follow along and hope for the best.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcSUFRiOLYo/VKC7lospirI/AAAAAAAAC4g/yQRFUYB0wGk/s1600/IMG_7268.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcSUFRiOLYo/VKC7lospirI/AAAAAAAAC4g/yQRFUYB0wGk/s1600/IMG_7268.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I laid the paper pattern over the top and measure the extra allowance all around the sides. It was somewhere between 2.5-3cm depending on where you measured. I thought it might be safer to keep it to straight 3cm all over. This means I'll definitely have enough fabric but it may also mean I may have to cut bits off while making the shoe. At least I know before going into it that this bit might be tricky.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_XEVwwF_UvM/VKC7jnaIkRI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/ipnFZOm15QM/s1600/IMG_7272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_XEVwwF_UvM/VKC7jnaIkRI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/ipnFZOm15QM/s1600/IMG_7272.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I thought I'd made a huge mistake when I laid the patterns side by side at the end because I couldn't see a difference between the two and wondered if I had done all that for nothing??<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UtGnx_AG9q4/VKC7j9bQa9I/AAAAAAAAC4U/6S0OqjD0R1o/s1600/IMG_7273.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UtGnx_AG9q4/VKC7j9bQa9I/AAAAAAAAC4U/6S0OqjD0R1o/s1600/IMG_7273.JPG" height="566" width="640" /></a></div><br />Luckily once I laid one over the top of the other it became apparent that I had added extra fabric exactly where I needed it. Apart from the toe curve I had managed to bring the entire pattern in by about 2cm all around. Perfect!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh4jZ6tCPyM/VKC7rl7yAHI/AAAAAAAAC4o/Vwf2iMdMwiw/s1600/IMG_7274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh4jZ6tCPyM/VKC7rl7yAHI/AAAAAAAAC4o/Vwf2iMdMwiw/s1600/IMG_7274.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />Where to now? Well careful little me is going to make a muslin now and practice sewing this shape up, testing out that pesky dart and just getting my head around the whole pattern before attempting to work with leather.<br /><br />Exciting times!!http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/shoemaking-making-pattern-to-fit-my.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-8403670826763422511Sun, 28 Dec 2014 02:33:00 +00002014-12-28T13:33:45.422+11:00Vogue 1247 - it's love.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8uuec_EZ-bY/VJ9atB5O21I/AAAAAAAAC10/JrsiElUZQXw/s1600/DSCF7395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8uuec_EZ-bY/VJ9atB5O21I/AAAAAAAAC10/JrsiElUZQXw/s1600/DSCF7395.JPG" height="552" width="640" /></a></div><br />I've been hearing people rave about this skirt and I've loved pretty much every version I've seen made up but I guess I was too into my love affair with Simplicity 2451 to notice. I used to consider Simplicity 2451 my favourite skirt pattern, my BFF, my TNT but sadly that's all over now. Enter Vogue 1247.<br /><br />So why is this pattern so good? It fits straight out of the envelope! Let me clarify. I have a sway back and I'm pear shaped and when I tried on my muslin there were&nbsp;<i>no folds or creases to be found</i>. It fits in the right places and skims over things in the right places and it's kind of just the perfect length for summer. I'm not sure what magic Vogue is working in this skirt but I am officially in love. Vogue 1247 is now my BFF and TNT. Like forever guys.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kVINTmWT0qo/VJ9a6JgrjlI/AAAAAAAAC18/KTRZuluO3JE/s1600/DSCF7390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kVINTmWT0qo/VJ9a6JgrjlI/AAAAAAAAC18/KTRZuluO3JE/s1600/DSCF7390.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br />The construction is pretty easy if you carefully mark everything and really read the instructions. It would be a quick little make if it weren't for all the bias binding on the seams but it does make for really good looking innards. So while we're talking about bias binding - check out what I got for Christmas&nbsp;<a href="http://instagram.com/p/xASOcDgTUI/" target="_blank">here</a>. A bias tape maker! I love using bias binding on hems and arms holes and I'm constantly on the hunt for nice stuff but now I don't have to worry. This thing can pump out metres of the stuff in about 60 seconds flat. Now I shall bind ALL OF THE THINGS.<br /><br />And let's talk about pockets. Aren't these great? They just sit there being all inconspicuous-like and suddenly your hands disappear right in front of you. It's like having two tiny Kangaroo pockets.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_WpauhKhtQ/VJ9bJiYMtKI/AAAAAAAAC2M/Hz28L9hqBg8/s1600/DSCF7402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_WpauhKhtQ/VJ9bJiYMtKI/AAAAAAAAC2M/Hz28L9hqBg8/s1600/DSCF7402.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br />This pattern includes a 5 centimetre hem allowance which, if I had have used it, would have turned this skirt into scandalous territory even for little 5"2 me. It was pretty much the perfect length before I had to hem it so I chose the skinniest bias binding from my stash and only had to turn it up 0.5cm. I think I might make it a smidgeon longer on my next two versions (yes, there are already 2 lined up, fabrics picked, washed and ready to cut!).<br /><br />I'm wearing this skirt with one of my recently made&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/singlets-galore.html" target="_blank">Baseball Singlets</a>. It's also a newly acquired TNT so I guess this whole outfit is now one giant TNT outfit. Dynamite.<br /><br />Since it's been long enough since I've blogged those singlet tops for me to wear them and wash them religiously I thought I'd let you know here that the Cotton Jersey ones are looking a little worse for wear. Their hems stretched out and they're only really good for tucking into skirts like this (which is not such a bad thing). The heavy, woodlands printed cotton jersey one is still pretty good but the winner by far is this one which is made from a brushed cotton lycra. It stretches with you but keeps it's shape and the hem still looks the same as the day I sewed it.<br /><br />I'm finding the longer I sew the easier it is to narrow down which fabrics I should be using and which ones to pass up. It's taken a long time to get to the point where I can walk into a fabric store and only pick up the exact fabrics that will work time and time again with my patterns but I'm super glad to be at this point. I hope if you're somewhere on your fabric picking journey that this kind of info helps you too!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyusBA9v1Rg/VJ9mTYpgX_I/AAAAAAAAC2k/rC4WVlPMRoc/s1600/DSCF7382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyusBA9v1Rg/VJ9mTYpgX_I/AAAAAAAAC2k/rC4WVlPMRoc/s1600/DSCF7382.JPG" height="462" width="640" /></a></div><br />So let's talk about the one downside to this skirt. The waistband. I didn't sew up the waistband on the muslin partly because the rest of the skirt was already really well fitting and I thought <i>what could go wrong? </i>Also I had enough continuous interfacing for one waistband and it made sense to keep that for the real thing rather than the muslin. I'm bummed I didn't sew it up first though. I found this really great tutorial for sewing this kind of waistband&nbsp;<a href="https://dittofabrics.co.uk/blog/uncategorized/sewing-a-waistband/" target="_blank">here</a>. I started following the tutorial only to find that my waistband fitted the skirt exactly with 1.5cm leftover on each end for seam allowance. This was a bit of a problem seeing as there was meant to be about 3-4 centimetres leftover so that the waistband would overlap once closed. I wasn't really sure what to do so I just sewed it up with it's seam allowance and tried it on. Of course the top of the waistband is sitting away from my body because it's not right. My temporary fix was to make the top of the waistband overlap by about 3 centimetres and sew a hook and eye to keep it sitting there. It made it better but there's got to be a better way to get this waistband to fit. If you've made the Vogue 1247 and had waistband woes could you let me know what you did to fix it?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LZ1dulXmVa8/VJ9bbj3AwsI/AAAAAAAAC2U/gALIGEAUnMM/s1600/DSCF7405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LZ1dulXmVa8/VJ9bbj3AwsI/AAAAAAAAC2U/gALIGEAUnMM/s1600/DSCF7405.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All in all this skirt is a winner. I don't have fitting woes and I'm determined to outsmart the waistband so that this becomes the perfect skirt. Stay tuned because there will be a trifecta of Vogue 1247's coming shortly!</div><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-LZ1dulXmVa8%252FVJ9bbj3AwsI%252FAAAAAAAAC2U%252FgALIGEAUnMM%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7405.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 3054px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-LZ1dulXmVa8%252FVJ9bbj3AwsI%252FAAAAAAAAC2U%252FgALIGEAUnMM%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7405.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 3054px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-LZ1dulXmVa8%252FVJ9bbj3AwsI%252FAAAAAAAAC2U%252FgALIGEAUnMM%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7405.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 3054px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-LZ1dulXmVa8%252FVJ9bbj3AwsI%252FAAAAAAAAC2U%252FgALIGEAUnMM%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7405.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 3054px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/vogue-1247-its-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-2162183335348808200Sun, 14 Dec 2014 08:54:00 +00002014-12-14T19:54:50.372+11:00Making My Wedding Dress: The Wedding Photos<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IT5i0uiQPBk/VI0bRQ0UQ8I/AAAAAAAACzA/UkBeJgtstrM/s1600/IMG_8646.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IT5i0uiQPBk/VI0bRQ0UQ8I/AAAAAAAACzA/UkBeJgtstrM/s1600/IMG_8646.JPG" height="640" width="425" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All photos in this post by&nbsp;<a href="http://marapage.com/" target="_blank">Mara Page</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Nine weeks ago I walked down the aisle on the best day of my life wearing a dress I made myself. It was nothing short of a fairytale and I'm so excited to share the photos with you!<br /><br />If you followed along while I was making my wedding dress you would have seen&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/making-my-wedding-dress-inspiration.html" target="_blank">the inspiration</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/making-my-wedding-dress-many-muslins_11.html" target="_blank">the many muslins</a>&nbsp;to get the bodice right, the many muslins to get&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/making-my-wedding-dress-skirt.html" target="_blank">the skirt</a>&nbsp;right and then me freaking out over the&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/making-my-wedding-dress-fabric-and.html" target="_blank">fabric and embellishment</a>&nbsp;for the dress. There were seriously so many facets to making this dress.<br /><br />The story is I bought this beautiful champagne coloured silk and two different shades of tulle to make the entire dress. I carefully constructed the entire bodice using some couture sewing tips I had picked up from Gertie's bombshell class and from reading through Susan Khalje's Bridal Couture book. Once that was put together I carefully constructed the skirt using the silk and the two layers of tulle. It wasn't until I sewed the entire thing together at the waistline (which believe me, took <i>hours</i>) that I realised I didn't like the bodice. While the fabric was beautiful it was just so simple and plain looking. The fit needed a bit more work and the silk was looking a bit too man-handled. It was pretty but in a <i>very</i> plain and simple way and I wasn't excited to wear it.<br /><br />So I changed my mind.<br /><br />Let's be clear that this all happened 5 weeks out from the wedding as I was meant to be <i>finishing </i>the dress, not starting again. As luck would have it I had taken a trip to Tessuti a few weeks prior looking for some special fabric to make myself a little bolero to go with the dress. I talked myself into buying this matte champagne sequin fabric and I'm SO glad. So while I was freaking out over having to start the bodice all over again I was also quietly excited that maybe I could make it out of this fabric and wear sequins on my wedding day.<br /><br />And wear sequins I did.<br /><br />There was one weekend in there where I attempted to drape the sequinned fabric and do some kid of tulle overlay but that didn't really work out for me and I could see that as I was working so I scrapped it and started <i>again</i>.<br /><br />The blur that was the last 4 weekends before the wedding involved me cutting out my pattern pieces in some kind of stable, stretch cotton I used as underlining to get the fit with the stretch right. Then I used my pattern pieces to cut the sequinned fabric out and assemble it altogether. I think I spent somewhere between 30 &amp; 40 hours cutting sequins out of the seam allowances of all 8 bodice pieces before sewing them together. Luckily I was able to take parts of the discarded bodice I had already created and put them into the new one, like the bust cups and padding. I ended up sewing the underlining completely together and the sequinned fabric completely together and laying them over the top of one another before attaching the actual lining which had the boning in it. The verdict on the sequins is that they were stretchier than my underlining and so there wasn't enough negative ease factored in. Then there was the moment where I tried the finished dress on 6 days out from the wedding and the zip broke. This meant I had to go back, unpick the zip, and install a new one but leaving more ease in the bodice so it wouldn't pull on the zip so much. All of the above factors meant that the bodice was not tight enough and so it crinkled and folded on the day. I'd like to say here that at this point in my life I was working with what I had. I LOVED the silhouette and I LOVED the fabrics I had chosen. I wasn't about to let a zip break on my wedding day and ruin this entire year long process. It was about salvaging what I had created and wearing that damn dress on my damn wedding day.<br /><br />So all that aside I have to say I was ridiculously excited to wear a handmade dress on the day. I don't care about the wrinkles, I don't care if the skirt didn't drape 100% the way it was meant to. I made that thing with my own hands and my imagination and I was so proud I could have burst.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The following video is a stop motion animation of the making of my wedding dress which shows you every step of the construction.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/107812991" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/107812991">The Making of My Wedding Dress</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user23662894">Jodie</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div><br /><br />Now for some photos!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">We got married in the bush reserve directly behind our house. You can probably just see the peaks of the marquee in the left hand corner in our backyard. We had a our reception in our backyard which we spent more than a year landscaping. It all looked so pretty on the day!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5a7YLQH-z9o/VI0nByqh97I/AAAAAAAACzc/-xiHvztxQDU/s1600/IMG_8465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5a7YLQH-z9o/VI0nByqh97I/AAAAAAAACzc/-xiHvztxQDU/s1600/IMG_8465.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TEhJ_Ty_e94/VI0oSpxnl1I/AAAAAAAACzo/BfK73jNEwDc/s1600/IMG_9117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TEhJ_Ty_e94/VI0oSpxnl1I/AAAAAAAACzo/BfK73jNEwDc/s1600/IMG_9117.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j-rUp1RmAsI/VI0ogZBkbaI/AAAAAAAACzw/Tc4Y7HOgh4E/s1600/IMG_9141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j-rUp1RmAsI/VI0ogZBkbaI/AAAAAAAACzw/Tc4Y7HOgh4E/s1600/IMG_9141.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qA9ir5mKBmA/VI0oqj4oQDI/AAAAAAAACz4/gKnSdXLKFTw/s1600/IMG_9468.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qA9ir5mKBmA/VI0oqj4oQDI/AAAAAAAACz4/gKnSdXLKFTw/s1600/IMG_9468.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fn8kBrm8KKg/VI0o3lpsDoI/AAAAAAAAC0A/deaddMAHRFY/s1600/IMG_9774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fn8kBrm8KKg/VI0o3lpsDoI/AAAAAAAAC0A/deaddMAHRFY/s1600/IMG_9774.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VaLdCUMvwis/VI0pB0R5dzI/AAAAAAAAC0I/_tEdc-tz-0w/s1600/IMG_10109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VaLdCUMvwis/VI0pB0R5dzI/AAAAAAAAC0I/_tEdc-tz-0w/s1600/IMG_10109.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tmDjv9ef6Q8/VI0pJ7cHnWI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/5q95m28MwSg/s1600/IMG_10408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tmDjv9ef6Q8/VI0pJ7cHnWI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/5q95m28MwSg/s1600/IMG_10408.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1pya_wLa_5g/VI1JzTAiNZI/AAAAAAAAC1U/6mv7jYT2uSk/s1600/IMG_10163.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1pya_wLa_5g/VI1JzTAiNZI/AAAAAAAAC1U/6mv7jYT2uSk/s1600/IMG_10163.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cSCA7UFiIss/VI0rmSEn6hI/AAAAAAAAC1E/o7g92IkCIzs/s1600/IMG_8613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cSCA7UFiIss/VI0rmSEn6hI/AAAAAAAAC1E/o7g92IkCIzs/s1600/IMG_8613.JPG" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3tr0ouqIYs/VI0pWma-EbI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/ZkiwPDktGVE/s1600/IMG_8419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3tr0ouqIYs/VI0pWma-EbI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/ZkiwPDktGVE/s1600/IMG_8419.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-psJJuYCohow/VI0piIaOznI/AAAAAAAAC0g/WvRjP4rd4cE/s1600/IMG_8424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-psJJuYCohow/VI0piIaOznI/AAAAAAAAC0g/WvRjP4rd4cE/s1600/IMG_8424.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f2XX0dQfy34/VI0prPLRj-I/AAAAAAAAC0o/YD0zjESBAyk/s1600/IMG_8403.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f2XX0dQfy34/VI0prPLRj-I/AAAAAAAAC0o/YD0zjESBAyk/s1600/IMG_8403.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CDEeyaQ11Cw/VI0pzEngXiI/AAAAAAAAC0w/4rC7Xxm1CPg/s1600/IMG_10703.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CDEeyaQ11Cw/VI0pzEngXiI/AAAAAAAAC0w/4rC7Xxm1CPg/s1600/IMG_10703.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xEKlhgYx0yQ/VI0p7fNpLAI/AAAAAAAAC04/_3RfgSmx0tw/s1600/IMG_11076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xEKlhgYx0yQ/VI0p7fNpLAI/AAAAAAAAC04/_3RfgSmx0tw/s1600/IMG_11076.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So that's the story of my wedding dress. I never thought I'd be able to say that I'd made it but I can.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's funny that I had a sewing machine for 4 years before I even attempted using it because I was so afraid. My fear was so overwhelming that even as I started sewing and started this blog I named my blog after my fear. I was literally Scared Stitchless. I've come a long way in 4 years and while my sewing is not perfect I'm really proud of what I've achieved. Also I've learnt something new about myself in this process.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I'm not afraid anymore.</div><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F4.bp.blogspot.com%252F-TEhJ_Ty_e94%252FVI0oSpxnl1I%252FAAAAAAAACzo%252FBfK73jNEwDc%252Fs1600%252FIMG_9117.jpg%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 140px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2254px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F4.bp.blogspot.com%252F-TEhJ_Ty_e94%252FVI0oSpxnl1I%252FAAAAAAAACzo%252FBfK73jNEwDc%252Fs1600%252FIMG_9117.jpg%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 140px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2254px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/making-my-wedding-dress-wedding-photos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-2763675699137528525Fri, 12 Dec 2014 08:41:00 +00002014-12-12T19:44:51.145+11:00Shoemaking: How I customised my shoe lasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kedVmpajKEE/VIlu2Y23UKI/AAAAAAAACxQ/mooUjCgAGaU/s1600/IMG_7030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kedVmpajKEE/VIlu2Y23UKI/AAAAAAAACxQ/mooUjCgAGaU/s1600/IMG_7030.JPG" height="640" width="592" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I mentioned in my <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/shoemaking-figuring-out-how-to-start.html" target="_blank">first post</a> on shoemaking that I bought myself a pair of shoe lasts in my size (39) to start my adventures in making shoes. I've been thinking about the process all week and one thought that kept popping up was fit. I've reached a point with my sewing where I can't overlook fit issues. If it's obvious to me that something isn't going to sit right and it's within my skill level to change the pattern prior to starting I will always do that. So as I looked through all my materials for shoemaking I began worrying about how my first pair of shoes were going to fit. Here I was with the perfect kit of materials knowing that the end product would be a pair of handmade shoes, in leather no less. So to crack open a comprehensive kit and a leather hide without considering how the end product would be shaped just didn't seem right.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Interesting fact - I have flat feet. I'm double jointed/hypermobile which means I never developed arches in my feet, which in turn means my feet are quite wide. I've noticed that the fabric on the sides of my shoes right beside the sole tend to wear out first because once I've worn shoes a couple of times I stretch them out and the side of the shoe is no longer the side but part of the sole. Knowing this I decided to adjust my shoe lasts to accommodate this extra width before I even touch the kit.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I tried to research customising shoe lasts on the internet before starting this. While I've been busy compiling links and videos and blog posts that talk about shoemaking (more on that later) I haven't actually stumbled across anything that covers customising shoe lasts. So a warning to any of you who might be thinking about making shoes. The below is my process that I made up. I'm not actually sure that it's going to work properly yet but I'm sharing it because it's the only way I can think to customise shoe lasts and I'll explain why I think it's going to work a little later on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Customising my foot lasts</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Tracing and comparing</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I started by tracing around the edges of each of my foot lasts and drawing over the line with a Sharpie. I then traced around both my feet and drew over the line with a Sharpie. The above photo shows you why a regular shoe just doesn't work for my foot shape. There are multiple spots where my foot is off or even way off the tracing of the last. These are the areas where my foot generally has fabric beneath it rather than proper soling on all of my ballet flats. Below you can see my foot tracing taped to the bottom of the last so I could visualise where I was going to need extra width.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oXoQUmA5dLw/VIlzGdedx5I/AAAAAAAACxc/iAM616VV17s/s1600/IMG_7028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oXoQUmA5dLw/VIlzGdedx5I/AAAAAAAACxc/iAM616VV17s/s1600/IMG_7028.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Building up the last with clay</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I knew to customise my lasts I would need to add something to these areas where I can see the tracing extending beyond the foot last. I came across one picture online where a foot last had some cork added to it but since this was a material I hadn't worked with and couldn't easily find in my local art store I took a chance on regular modelling clay. It was $4.95 for this pack you see below and I only used a quarter of it so you won't need much.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQtjPvrmvpc/VIlzZNtrt6I/AAAAAAAACxk/vDSSPJxCisE/s1600/IMG_7034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQtjPvrmvpc/VIlzZNtrt6I/AAAAAAAACxk/vDSSPJxCisE/s1600/IMG_7034.JPG" height="556" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I carefully added modelling clay to fill in all the spots where the tracing extended past the last. I had to hold my hand underneath the paper to give it a smooth, firm base to mould the clay against otherwise the sole would have been lumpy and irregular. I smoothed out the clay and tapered it out to nothing just a little way up the last to mimic the shape of my own feet. I deliberately chose not to do anything with the toe shape. Firstly because I like the rounded shape of the last and that's what shaped toe I'll end up with. Also my&nbsp;toes currently fit into size 39's just fine. Accommodating for the extra width of my feet was a much bigger concern than my toes fitting in - because they already do?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p4IGaFPN1UI/VIlzpyIRp-I/AAAAAAAACxs/5e9mr-ydfNA/s1600/IMG_7038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p4IGaFPN1UI/VIlzpyIRp-I/AAAAAAAACxs/5e9mr-ydfNA/s1600/IMG_7038.JPG" height="640" width="638" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Below you can see how much clay I added and how high I brought it up on the last to mimic my foot shape.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GitCI5-gw1k/VIlz42NtcnI/AAAAAAAACx0/c9MFqyiTPZ8/s1600/IMG_7040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GitCI5-gw1k/VIlz42NtcnI/AAAAAAAACx0/c9MFqyiTPZ8/s1600/IMG_7040.JPG" height="378" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HMR2XZk0p-A/VIl0D3cqXmI/AAAAAAAACx8/pgZ69Ivat-g/s1600/IMG_7042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HMR2XZk0p-A/VIl0D3cqXmI/AAAAAAAACx8/pgZ69Ivat-g/s1600/IMG_7042.JPG" height="368" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Taping the clay down</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once I was happy with the shape of the clay I tore strips of masking tape and taped it all firmly in place. Again I had to have my hand underneath the last keeping a smooth, firm base so the clay wouldn't warp and move around as I was taping. Below you can see what my lasts look like now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLX3H1ozFUE/VIl0UzCjyXI/AAAAAAAACyE/1duMGU-KCjc/s1600/IMG_7081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLX3H1ozFUE/VIl0UzCjyXI/AAAAAAAACyE/1duMGU-KCjc/s1600/IMG_7081.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Remeasuring my lasts against my feet</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b>Once I'd finished this I traced the outline of my customised lasts and drew over that with a Sharpie. Below you can see the difference between my left foot, the original left foot last and the new left foot last after customisation. On the right you can see my foot tracing sitting over the top of the customised right shoe last. The difference between this picture below and the picture I started the post with is quite subtle. Below you can see there are points where the edge of my foot meets the edge of the shoe last but there's never a point where the foot tracing extends beyond it. This is exactly what I intended so that I could make my whole shoe wider.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EM-YI6qPZis/VIl0jMT00qI/AAAAAAAACyM/N8OnVcFvKbM/s1600/IMG_7084.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EM-YI6qPZis/VIl0jMT00qI/AAAAAAAACyM/N8OnVcFvKbM/s1600/IMG_7084.JPG" height="440" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Below you can really see the difference between the left foot tracing sitting over the original left shoe last whereas the right foot tracing is sitting over the customised right foot last. Hopefully this should make for a better fitted shoe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bq2NtEjKDmU/VIl0xqrtXOI/AAAAAAAACyU/zKSOrBrerCg/s1600/IMG_7086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bq2NtEjKDmU/VIl0xqrtXOI/AAAAAAAACyU/zKSOrBrerCg/s1600/IMG_7086.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>What does this change?</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unfortunately it changes everything. Now that I have a new sole shape I also have to have a new inner sole shape and I have to redraft the entire pattern for the leather. I debated whether to do all this work at the beginning when I hadn't even made a shoe yet but I feel like it's worth getting right. If you're planning to make shoes for yourself you might not need to do this step at all, particularly if your foot is close to the shape of the last.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My next step is to create a pattern based on the new, customised last. I'll be doing a post on it so you can see the difference in shape between the two patterns.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>So this customisation thing, is it going to work?</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've already had this debate in my mind for the last week. Part of me thinks the modelling clay will be too malleable and might shift around as I'm trying to stretch leather over the edges and maybe it will be. However just like during this process where I held my hand beneath the last as I moulded, I will have an insole taped to the bottom of the last. The insole is leather and is covered in another layer of leather so it's quite strong and sturdy. This means that as I stretch the upper leather over the edges of the last, the insole will be pushing back against the clay which means that even if it wants to squish, it won't have anywhere to squish to.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If it all goes pear shaped I'll blog about that too and I'll update this post to reflect any changes that might need to be made but for now I believe in this enough to cut into a brand new leather hide!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I bought an entire hide of this mint green/ice blue colour to make my first pair of ballet flats from. I also bought this natural leather to make a pair of sandals from too. I'm so excited to get started!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iALdICFVwJ8/VIl2NaPDT5I/AAAAAAAACyg/yfNQvit486Q/s1600/IMG_7064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iALdICFVwJ8/VIl2NaPDT5I/AAAAAAAACyg/yfNQvit486Q/s1600/IMG_7064.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-kedVmpajKEE%252FVIlu2Y23UKI%252FAAAAAAAACxQ%252FmooUjCgAGaU%252Fs1600%252FIMG_7030.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-kedVmpajKEE%252FVIlu2Y23UKI%252FAAAAAAAACxQ%252FmooUjCgAGaU%252Fs1600%252FIMG_7030.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-kedVmpajKEE%252FVIlu2Y23UKI%252FAAAAAAAACxQ%252FmooUjCgAGaU%252Fs1600%252FIMG_7030.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-kedVmpajKEE%252FVIlu2Y23UKI%252FAAAAAAAACxQ%252FmooUjCgAGaU%252Fs1600%252FIMG_7030.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent;"></a><br />http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/shoemaking-how-i-customised-my-foot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-5886263827722996699Sun, 07 Dec 2014 08:49:00 +00002014-12-07T21:26:25.507+11:00The Perfect Sun Dress - McCalls 5094<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iH9xyUH31vI/VIQGX2QF38I/AAAAAAAACwI/oqHJxmvPlQ0/s1600/DSCF7372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iH9xyUH31vI/VIQGX2QF38I/AAAAAAAACwI/oqHJxmvPlQ0/s1600/DSCF7372.JPG" height="376" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I think I've found my perfect sun dress pattern! I've had this pattern in my stash for a year or two now and I'm so glad I finally got around to sewing it.&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I struggled with the top part of the pattern purely because I read the envelope wrong. Sigh. If I'd followed it properly straight out of the packet it would have been a dream sew!</span><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BIlQWxv51PU/VIQHLVDmD1I/AAAAAAAACwY/ndZqmVw9A2o/s1600/DSCF7375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BIlQWxv51PU/VIQHLVDmD1I/AAAAAAAACwY/ndZqmVw9A2o/s1600/DSCF7375.JPG" height="406" width="640" /></a></div><br />Once I'd gotten the top part of the dress sorted the rest of the dress was a breeze. It's a cotton voile fabric lined with cotton voile so it was a super easy sew. I lined the top portion of the dress and I french seamed the skirt panels. Which was great until I sewed the back zipper in and realised that I had no way of french seaming that so I pinked the edges. I was going to sew bias tape to the bottom of the outer fabric and the lining independently so it could still be all swishy but again I'd already sewn that back seam so instead I trimmed both layers really carefully and treated them as one fabric when I sewed bias binding around the hem. So that means my skirt panels have french seams and they're fully enclosed. I guess my skirt is NEVER GOING TO UNRAVEL. I'm glad it all worked out this way though because having both fabrics hemmed together gives the hem a lovely body and the folds of the skirt are just a bit more pronounced which I love.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B9XSdPBaPZE/VIQGyt441RI/AAAAAAAACwQ/tjUPhAuIeYk/s1600/DSCF7366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B9XSdPBaPZE/VIQGyt441RI/AAAAAAAACwQ/tjUPhAuIeYk/s1600/DSCF7366.JPG" height="378" width="640" /></a></div><br />Words can't describe how much I love the cut out on the back of this dress. It's so simple but I just love it. The pattern actually calls for little straps on the ends of the cut outs and you're meant to tie the straps in a bow but that seemed a little twee for me so seeing as I was already fiddling with extending my pattern pieces I just extended them a little more so I could overlap them. I sewed two snaps on either side to keep this part together and they're pretty easy to do when putting it on (which I worried about for a while as I was putting it together).<br /><br />As you can see from the photo below I sewed my straps on after. I seem to have a fear of sewing straps in the beginning of putting a dress together. Which might have something to do with ALWAYS having to shorten them. I think I shortened these by about 6 centimetres in the end. And fray stop on the ends of them will do the trick.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YElyk98-PM4/VIQHfPTi1qI/AAAAAAAACwg/FYNEorZTj-A/s1600/IMG_7044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YElyk98-PM4/VIQHfPTi1qI/AAAAAAAACwg/FYNEorZTj-A/s1600/IMG_7044.JPG" height="444" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really do love this pattern even though I struggled to get my sizing right after going astray. It's a winner of a pattern and it's so flattering on. Come at me hot weather - I'm ready for you!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CU01SZMcpXY/VIQH1nlXbvI/AAAAAAAACwo/uSUpXPw4Rmg/s1600/DSCF7370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CU01SZMcpXY/VIQH1nlXbvI/AAAAAAAACwo/uSUpXPw4Rmg/s1600/DSCF7370.JPG" height="370" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-perfect-sun-dress-mccalls-5094.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-7799693053726234605Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:23:00 +00002014-12-04T19:32:06.623+11:00Shoemaking: Figuring out how to start<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z70Xd_W_2rk/VIATLECxWNI/AAAAAAAACvc/oFxpEQktyi4/s1600/IMG_6986.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z70Xd_W_2rk/VIATLECxWNI/AAAAAAAACvc/oFxpEQktyi4/s1600/IMG_6986.JPG" height="628" width="640" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shoemaking: Figuring out how to start</span></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When I first got into sewing about 4 years ago I got really curious about making my own shoes as well. Surely if you can make your own clothes from scratch with the help of the internet you could fumble your way through making your own shoes right?</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I guess I was a little more intimidated by starting because there’s not a lot of information about shoemaking at home. While there are hundreds &amp; thousands of sewing bloggers worldwide with even more people sewing without blogging there just aren’t that many people shoemaking. Or maybe there are and they haven’t got blogs? Or maybe they blog and I just haven’t found them yet? Whatever the case, shoemaking seems to be a lot rarer than sewing.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’ve come across a number of shoe making courses both in Australia and worldwide which I don’t doubt is probably the best way to learn. However I don’t learn as well in classes as I do when I teach myself things. There’s something about the very public nature of learning and making mistakes in front of other people that just doesn’t work for me. I’d much rather learn and make mistakes by myself where I can take my time to reflect and research and retry things at my own pace.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So where to begin?&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Making shoes from a kit vs making shoes by following a book</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Shoe Making Kit</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The reason I took the plunge and committed to start making my own shoes is because I stumbled across a link on Pinterest that lead me to this site <a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/">icanmakeshoes.com</a>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It’s a place in London that teaches classes on basic shoemaking and sells kits, lasts and booklets online. This place really seems to understand what it means to teach people a whole new skill from scratch. They’ve got all the materials for sale, you can buy yourself a kit which includes every single thing you need to put together a pair of shoes (except the lasts) and they have booklets with really clear instructions which are accompanied by colour photographs outlining each step. The look of their website, their products and their booklets is very fresh and modern. The kits and the booklets are clearly aimed at someone who has never ventured into shoemaking and could either be there in their studio learning or doing the same thing from home. I bought the kit, the booklet on making ballet flats and the booklet on making sandals. I would have bought my lasts from the same place but the shipping was going to cost more than the actual lasts so I didn’t.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After reading the booklet you can tell this is the absolute simplest way to make a pair of shoes and takes away all the fear of beginning. The perfect start! It has you making shoes from leather so you can simply cut away the edges and they won’t fray. It only asks you to sew one seam on the lining and one seam on the outer fabric so this can be done without a sewing machine if necessary which makes this kit even more accessible.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOeIvE0gYCk/VIATtsoDq2I/AAAAAAAACvk/9osW2cOuNYM/s1600/IMG_6991.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOeIvE0gYCk/VIATtsoDq2I/AAAAAAAACvk/9osW2cOuNYM/s1600/IMG_6991.JPG" height="640" width="628" /></a><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Following a book</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This website was not the initial inspiration for making my own shoes though. Four years ago when I started researching this idea I happened across this book Make Your Own Shoes by Mary Wales Loomis at <a href="http://marywalesloomis.com/">marywalesloomis.com</a> and bought it. Mary wanted to make her own shoes at home and since she had very little information on the subject she researched shoemaking the best way she knew how - from shoes. She cut up some of her older shoes and inspected each part. She sourced materials wherever she could and she spoke to her local cobbler whenever she couldn’t find what she was looking for. She also didn’t stop at flat shoes. She was keen to make heels or high heels (read: pumps if you’re not Australian?) as well so she cut them open and sourced materials for making her own heels.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What I loved most about this book is that it’s all done with what she can find. She sacrificed a pair of shoes so she could make a plaster of paris shoe last and experimented with different fabrics and stiffeners on the shoe upper until she had the process down pat. As a result this book is much more detailed. It requires you to stitch and understitch your layers, it has you hand stitching the layers under the shoes together really tightly before gluing and it talks about different fabrics to use and what linings and stiffeners might be appropriate for each choice.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LnMOXcP9bdY/VIAT6fEknbI/AAAAAAAACvs/i2aWCCEEGX0/s1600/IMG_6995.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LnMOXcP9bdY/VIAT6fEknbI/AAAAAAAACvs/i2aWCCEEGX0/s1600/IMG_6995.JPG" height="630" width="640" /></a><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Figuring out how to start</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love the idea of both of these methods. I bought the kit because I wanted a little hand holding on my first pair and now that I know they’re made with leather I don’t have to worry about much sewing. I can dive straight in and have a custom made pair of shoes in no time. Instant-ish gratification!</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So my first pair will be made solely from the materials from the kit and following the booklet&nbsp; on making ballet pumps to the letter. I think it will be a fun and easy way to ease myself into shoe making.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For my second pair I’m going to put all that aside and go with the book. I’ll choose a fabric instead of a leather, I’ll use appropriate linings and stiffeners as per the book’s suggestions and I’ll be sewing some of it on my machine and some of it by hand as suggested.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I’m interested to see which process is better for me. I suspect I’m going to like the one with all the sewing better because I feel like its going to produce a more professional shoe but on the other hand all the materials come with the kit so it’s going to end up looking and feeling pretty professional too. Time will tell!</span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Also I'll be trying out making my own sandals. And somewhere along the line I will customise my shoe lasts so I can make shoes that really fit my feet.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What materials have I got so far and where did I source them?</span></b></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><a href="http://icanmakeshoes.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">icanmakeshoes.com</span></a></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Shoe Making Kit -&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;">£</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">39.95&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ballet Flats Booklet -&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;">£</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">12.50&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Simple Sandals Booklet - &nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;">£</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">8.50&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Extra shoe glue x 2 -&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;">£</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">9&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">+&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;">£</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">10 postage</span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><u><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Total Australian = $148</span></u></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/70009417/plastic-lasts-new-for-felting-shoes?ref=pr_faveitems" target="_blank">Kadabros</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Shoe lasts - $45 American + $22 American postage</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><u>Total Australian = $80</u></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.marywalesloomis.com/index.php?page=order" target="_blank">marywalesloomis.com</a></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Make Your Own Shoes - $39.95 American</span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><u><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Total Australian = $45</span></u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e13vk3jP9Go/VIAVFEEf80I/AAAAAAAACv4/N5IKkc-rdYo/s1600/IMG_6968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e13vk3jP9Go/VIAVFEEf80I/AAAAAAAACv4/N5IKkc-rdYo/s1600/IMG_6968.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I haven’t yet bought leather for my first pair of shoes and I also don’t have all the materials for my second pair of shoes yet but I’ll be including an expenses list for each pair of shoes I make. I suspect making shoes from the book will result in a cheaper pair of shoes but I’m yet to really test that theory.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’ll be making my first pair of shoes in the next couple of weeks so I’ll report back on the process in a detailed post or you can watch the process on&nbsp;<a href="http://instagram.com/scaredstitchless" target="_blank">instagram</a>.</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-z70Xd_W_2rk%252FVIATLECxWNI%252FAAAAAAAACvc%252FoFxpEQktyi4%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6986.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; 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background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 18px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-z70Xd_W_2rk%252FVIATLECxWNI%252FAAAAAAAACvc%252FoFxpEQktyi4%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6986.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 18px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/12/shoemaking-figuring-out-how-to-start.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-5937840633231966099Fri, 28 Nov 2014 23:20:00 +00002014-11-29T11:16:18.065+11:00Black Pencil Skirt<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e8HUzP4LQ2k/VHj6KFoWfII/AAAAAAAACuo/GC2baMsnwRQ/s1600/DSCF7310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e8HUzP4LQ2k/VHj6KFoWfII/AAAAAAAACuo/GC2baMsnwRQ/s1600/DSCF7310.JPG" height="492" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Worn here with my&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/belcarra-in-black-crepe.html" target="_blank">Belcarra in Black Crepe</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Sometimes you just need to drop everything and sew yourself a black pencil skirt. Fortunately when this thought struck me I found a black drill in my stash and the skirt portion of a pattern I'd already used and I was on my way.<br /><br />To be honest I'm not sure what possessed me to do this considering I'm pear shaped and fitting the lower part of my body usually ends in tears. I've been getting away with making skirts for a couple of years now, ignoring the usual pull lines that appear and hoping it will disappear if I use a different fabric next time. Or just hoping that no-one will notice.<br /><br />In the middle of the madness of sewing my own wedding dress I committed to sewing myself a dress for my Hen's Night &amp; the Sydney Frocktails event. They were within a week of each other so it made sense to kill two birds with one stone. Plus it was 4 weeks out from the wedding - what could go wrong?<br /><br />The answer is lots. I made my Frocktails dress with Blue Ginger Doll's&nbsp;<a href="http://bluegingerdoll.com/collections/all-products/products/billie-jean" target="_blank">Billie Jean</a>&nbsp;pattern only I chose to do the pencil skirt option. Now the pattern itself is great and I loved the end result but I actually couldn't have chosen a worse pattern for my body type. Long story short after doing a small bust adjustment and millions of fittings of the top portion and a full butt adjustment on the back portion of the skirt pieces and millions of fittings of the bottom portion, not to mention working with a fabric that had slight stretch so required a bit of negative ease I was DONE with this pattern. Like I said, I loved the end product but I really didn't need all that stress in the middle of sewing my wedding dress. Ugh.<br /><br />Anyway the point of me telling you that is that something good came out of that week or so of fitting angst. I ended up with a pretty well fitting pencil skirt pattern - huzzah! Now don't get too excited. It still has a few wrinkles here and there that I have to diagnose and fix on my next version but my pattern pieces are oh-so-close to being "me" shaped.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vwFTv6yIEBk/VHj-aUR0ekI/AAAAAAAACu0/JyG7XxlHpqs/s1600/DSCF7316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vwFTv6yIEBk/VHj-aUR0ekI/AAAAAAAACu0/JyG7XxlHpqs/s1600/DSCF7316.JPG" height="530" width="640" /></a></div><br />You can see from the side that I managed to get the fabric to drop in a straight line from the end of the zipper down which was already a win. There are still a few wrinkles sitting on my hips there which point near the darts but otherwise the fit is spot on.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FqIVJ5i-lf4/VHkAROUExhI/AAAAAAAACvA/YrEnIla7-SU/s1600/DSCF7327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FqIVJ5i-lf4/VHkAROUExhI/AAAAAAAACvA/YrEnIla7-SU/s1600/DSCF7327.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><br />You can see from my poor pattern piece that I hacked away at it to open it up beneath the dart and again across the fullest part of my hips. This time around I even widened and deepened the dart which helped a little but didn't entirely fix the problem.<br /><br />Overall I'm happy with this skirt and the fit is as close as my current skills and knowledge allows. If you have any tips that might help let me know because I'm very keen to have the perfect fitting pencil skirt.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0czdF5unREE/VHkB4l0hrkI/AAAAAAAACvM/hJj1bBKC8N0/s1600/DSCF7325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0czdF5unREE/VHkB4l0hrkI/AAAAAAAACvM/hJj1bBKC8N0/s1600/DSCF7325.JPG" height="538" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm heading to my first Sydney Social Sewing day tomorrow and I can't wait! It's so great to have found such a lovely group of stitchers and I hope it becomes a regular thing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll leave you with a quote I read earlier in the week.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">People who care find others who care and they all end up caring about something even more than they did before they met - Seth Godin. If that's not our sewing community then I don't know what is.</div><br />Happy weekend!<br /><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0czdF5unREE%252FVHkB4l0hrkI%252FAAAAAAAACvM%252FhJj1bBKC8N0%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7325.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2276px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><br /><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-e8HUzP4LQ2k%252FVHj6KFoWfII%252FAAAAAAAACuo%252FGC2baMsnwRQ%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7310.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 24px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8863828416295908549%23editor%2Fsrc%3Ddashboard&amp;media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-e8HUzP4LQ2k%252FVHj6KFoWfII%252FAAAAAAAACuo%252FGC2baMsnwRQ%252Fs1600%252FDSCF7310.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&amp;xm=h&amp;xv=sa1.35&amp;description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 24px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/11/black-pencil-skirt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8863828416295908549.post-435238152542473191Fri, 21 Nov 2014 10:09:00 +00002014-11-21T21:09:25.958+11:00Hummingbird Belcarra<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DkXHol49k9A/VG8IGtsnTfI/AAAAAAAACtk/5nJ4HYvfFaM/s1600/IMG_6829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DkXHol49k9A/VG8IGtsnTfI/AAAAAAAACtk/5nJ4HYvfFaM/s1600/IMG_6829.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm back again. This time with a Sewaholic Belcarra blouse made from this great Hummingbird Crepe de Chine I picked up at Spotlight last year. I went back to my original post on&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/planning-my-handmade-wardrobe.html" target="_blank">planning my handmade wardrobe</a>&nbsp;to see what I originally bought the fabric for. Apparently it was going to be a Deer &amp; Doe Datura. So glad it turned into a Belcarra though. The fabric is perfect for this pattern.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I made my <a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/belcarra-in-black-crepe.html" target="_blank">first version</a>&nbsp;of this pattern last year in a black crepe also from Spotlight. It has been the perfect wardrobe filler and I loved the drape of the fabric. Even though my measurements sit pretty squarely in a size 10 I found my first version in a size 10 to be too roomy for my taste. This time I sized down to an 8. Luckily for me Sewaholic patterns are all about pear shaped bodies so I didn't even need to worry about getting the size 8 to sit nicely on my hips. It was already drafted that way.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I did find it super annoying that my bra straps were constantly on show with the first version and I know it's not the fabric. It's definitely the pattern. Luckily it's an easy fix so I was able to grade the neckline portion of my sleeve pieces out to 1cm directly across my shoulders. I can see why this might not have been something that Sewaholic were keen to change about the pattern before releasing it. Once I'd graded the pieces and tried it on I found the neckline quite square-ish. Luckily once you sew your neckline seam it smooths it out so it's more of a curve. It doesn't look quite as flattering as the photo shoot pictures on their website but it's close enough and now I don't have to adjust the top constantly so I'm good with that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4SIm2aJaUsU/VG8EBvVCOLI/AAAAAAAACs8/YUTXlFn5wIs/s1600/DSCF7294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4SIm2aJaUsU/VG8EBvVCOLI/AAAAAAAACs8/YUTXlFn5wIs/s1600/DSCF7294.JPG" height="488" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Worn here with my&nbsp;<a href="http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/teal-green-kelly-skirt.html" target="_blank">Teal Green Kelly Skirt</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I french seamed the entire top and folded the hem up and stitched it. The only thing I bungled up was the neckline. I remembered having trouble with it last time so I tried to outsmart the pattern. I treated the neckline bias cut piece like bias tape and topstitched it down only to find the whole neckline gaping. I ended up folding the neckline over itself and topstitching it down again. Which kind of saved the day although it's a bit dodgy looking in some parts. Note to self. Just Follow The Damn Pattern.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Op3eeVGvklo/VG8E-pmxckI/AAAAAAAACtQ/Byd8GFyYZJg/s1600/DSCF7305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Op3eeVGvklo/VG8E-pmxckI/AAAAAAAACtQ/Byd8GFyYZJg/s1600/DSCF7305.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really love the drape and simple lines of this top and I'll be making a few more before the summer's out. It's a really wearable top and easy to dress up and down.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In other news I got a pegboard in my sewing room and I'm in LOVE. I'm really good at returning my things to their designated spot now. I can find things in my sewing room. Hooray!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8fq4Z3W6o6s/VG8Oa_HQL1I/AAAAAAAACuA/34EdHbwNo6Q/s1600/IMG_6823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8fq4Z3W6o6s/VG8Oa_HQL1I/AAAAAAAACuA/34EdHbwNo6Q/s1600/IMG_6823.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll leave you with a blurry outtake of what happens when you try to take a photo with a Dalmation puppy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5EMoFzGG2us/VG8F6kWVN3I/AAAAAAAACtY/VwCmyjd9MEs/s1600/DSCF7293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5EMoFzGG2us/VG8F6kWVN3I/AAAAAAAACtY/VwCmyjd9MEs/s1600/DSCF7293.JPG" height="544" width="640" /></a></div>http://scaredstitchless.blogspot.com/2014/11/hummingbird-belcarra.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Scared Stitchless)13